Resurrection
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: The League are called to Tom Sawyer's home town to investigate a series of crimes, led by someone that one of the League knows all too well...
1. A Message

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
Resurrection  
  
"Now, let's try this again," Sawyer said to Skinner, as the invisible thief picked up a pistol. Ever since he'd had his dream about Allan and Jonathan, Sawyer had begun to train the League in a few extra combat skills just to make sure.  
  
He'd managed to persuade Jekyll to create a few extra phials of his serum for Sawyer, Nemo, Hartdegen and Skinner; in the event of facing something even stronger than Hyde, whichever League member was the least helpful at present would drink the serum and release their own dark side. It was a risk, but Sawyer felt it would be worth it.  
  
He was also seeing about training Jekyll, Skinner and Mina in the art of shooting if the need ever arose. At present, Mina was the best shot out of all of them; Jekyll was unable to hold the gun steady long enough to get a shot off, and Skinner just couldn't seem to hit his target at all.  
  
"Skinner, you've got to remember the three parts of the lesson, OK?" Sawyer said, standing behind Skinner as the self-styled gentleman thief levelled his pistol at the target. Currently it had on it the picture of a Martian; a fairly complex thing to add, but Terry had managed to make an expert sketch of it. His photographic memory made him a highly accomplished artist, and the lessons that Hartdegen and Sawyer had given him had only improved his natural talent (If such a term could be applied to a machine).  
  
"Remind me what they were again?" Skinner asked, as he stared at the target. At least, Sawyer assumed he was staring at the target; even with his cream on, it was still impossible to see what Skinner's eyes were focusing on no matter what.  
  
"One; aim," Sawyer said. He briefly found himself remembering his one and only shooting lesson from Quartermain, all those long months ago. "Two; allow for wind target movement. Three; feel the shot."  
  
He stood back, and watched as Skinner stared down the pistol at the Martian picture. He knew that Skinner was finding it easy to obey the first two parts of his lessons, but when it came down to feeling the shot, he just couldn't do it.  
  
A few seconds passed, and Skinner fired.  
  
The bullet lodged itself in the leg of the Martian ship.  
  
"Oops?" Skinner said sheepishly, glancing over at Sawyer as he spoke.  
  
Sawyer groaned, and snatched his pistol out of Skinner's hands before turning around and walking out of the room, the invisible man hot on his heels. "Look, Skinner, if you don't slow down a bit, we're never going to get anywhere with this, OK?" he said, as they turned a corner and began to walk aimlessly through the ship's corridors. "I'm not asking you to be capable of replacing me in shooting, OK? I'm just asking you to be a bit better than you are now."  
  
Which isn't too difficult, Sawyer thought to himself. Skinner may have been good at hand-to-hand, but stick a gun in his hands and you were lucky if he didn't shoot his own foot.  
  
Just as that thought passed through his mind, he turned a corner and almost bumped right into Hartdegen.  
  
"Oh, sorry about that," he said, stopping to talk to his friend.  
  
"No need, it was me really," Hartdegen replied assuringly. "Anyway, I was asked by Nemo to find you; we're getting a call from America for you."  
  
"Really?" Sawyer said, smiling slightly. It was only a small smile, because he didn't feel like breaking into a full one yet; America still held too many bad memories for him. Ever since the Fantom- Moriarty, Sawyer reminded himself. Not the Fantom, his name was James Moriarty- had shot Huckleberry Finn...  
  
Sawyer broke off that train of thought. There was no point in dwelling on the past, he chided himself. You had to look to tomorrow. What had he once told Mina? 'Tomorrow's where I live and breathe'?  
  
He couldn't start going against his own advice. Besides, he should go back to America soon; he'd been avoiding the place for too long. Even when they'd been dropping off the radio with the Government, he hadn't gone himself; he'd asked Hartdegen and Jekyll to do it.  
  
"Where should I go?" he asked Hartdegen.  
  
"The control room," Hartdegen replied.  
  
"Right," Sawyer said, glancing back at Skinner. "Just drop the pistol off in the weapons locker, and then do what you want. I'll call you if I need you."  
  
Then he tore off down the corridor, heading for the stairs that led to the main control room.  
  
Skinner glanced over at Hartdegen and shrugged.  
  
"The strain of leadership, eh?" he said to Hartdegen.  
  
"It isn't much of a strain for him," Hartdegen said, looking at the rapidly shrinking form of Sawyer at the end of the corridor. "In fact, I sometimes think that he was born to lead us."  
  
"Yeah, maybe," Skinner said, shrugging. "Me, I sometimes wonder if I'm doing what I'm meant to do in my life."  
  
"You've saved many people, Skinner," Hartdegen said, looking over at the invisible man as they began to walk towards the weapons storage. "I think you're using your powers the way they should be used."  
  
"But is it what I was meant to do?" Skinner asked. "I dunno, sometimes I feel like I'm just tagging along because there's nowhere else I fit in but with you guys."  
  
Hartdegen couldn't answer that. He just kept on walking with Skinner towards the weapons room.  
  
*****  
  
After a few minutes of walking through the corridors of the Nautilus, Sawyer finally reached the ship's control room. It was completely deserted except for Nemo, who was standing at the wheel staring at the vast ocean in front of him.  
  
He glanced back as he heard Sawyer enter the room. "Ah, you're here," he said, nodding at the young American whom he was already starting to respect as an equal, if not a superior.  
  
"Yeah, well, you never call me unless it's important," Sawyer replied. "So, what gives?"  
  
"A few moments ago, we received a call from an agent of the American Secret Service," Nemo explained, as he turned back to the main wheel while Tom listened beside him. "He called himself Jim, and claimed to be an old friend of yours." He looked over at Sawyer inquiringly.  
  
"Yeah, he's a friend of mine," Sawyer replied. "He used to be a slave, but me and my friend Huckleberry Finn managed to arrange to get him free and work with us. What was his message?"  
  
"There are some unusual goings-on in your old home town of Missouri, apparently," Nemo explained, as he continued to navigate the Nautilus through the massive ocean. "Various minor crimes are being committed; thefts, assaults..." He paused briefly before continuing. "Rape."  
  
Sawyer barely managed to stifle an outburst; that wouldn't achieve anything right now. He then asked the one question he needed to know the answer to. "Anyone hurt that I know personally?"  
  
"No," Nemo replied. "Mr Jim included that information in his message. Your aunt -her name is Polly, I believe-, and Becky Thatcher are both unharmed. However, they are concerned about a recent event that occurred to them both."  
  
"Which is?" Sawyer asked.  
  
"Miss Thatcher was visiting your aunt's house, to see how she was coping by herself," Nemo explained, as he picked up a nearby sheet of paper and briefly ran his eyes over it. "As Miss Thatcher was leaving, one of the gang members broke into your house through the window and forced them to get down on the ground while wielding a gun. He told them to, and Jim is quoting exactly, 'Inform Thomas Sawyer that he who was betrayed has returned, and wishes to face him. Once he comes, he must fight the Piranhas, and the Shark. If he can.'" Nemo put the paper back down on the shelf beside him. "Once that had been said, the man fired his pistol at the two women, but his bullets missed them by only a few inches, and is believed to have been done as an intimidation tactic. He then left the room by the window, leaving the two of them very shaken, but otherwise unharmed. Miss Thatcher then proceeded to contact Mr Jim, who contacted us." He looked over at Sawyer, waiting for his reaction.  
  
Sawyer nodded grimly. "Nemo, get us going to Missouri. We have a crime gang to take down."  
  
Nemo nodded. He turned back to the Nautilus's wheel and began to turn it.  
  
As the massive submarine began to make its way towards America, Sawyer stared at the piece of paper lying on the shelf.  
  
"Something wrong, Tom?" a voice said from behind him. Turning around, Sawyer saw Mina standing behind him, looking as radiant as ever.  
  
"Nothing much, Mina," he replied, sighing. He stared down at his right hand and flexed his fingers. "It might even be good for me to see them again..."  
  
He looked up at her, and gave her a small smile. "We're going to Missouri." 


	2. First Meetings

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
funnyun: Thanks for your review. The future Quartermain spoke of will be written, and the friendship that will end will end here. However, it is NOT a League member- it's someone Sawyer's know for far longer...  
  
Windsinger: You asked for this to be continued, and here it is. Don't worry; the action will REALLY heat up in later chapters.  
  
um...( ): Thanks for the pointer; I'll remember that in future. Hope you enjoy the rest of the story.  
  
Resurrection  
  
After only a day or so of travel, the large form of the Nautilus rose up out of the Mississippi river, where it ran alongside a small town.  
  
Inside the ship, Sawyer was pacing the hold impatiently while Nemo steered the ship towards a harbour that seemed to have enough space for them to park the Nautilus. He kept on glancing over at where the car was sitting in the hold with an expression that looked as though he was itching to drive it, but another part was telling not to in order to avoid scaring anybody outside. He had his Winchester strapped on his back already, and he'd put some pistols in his pocket just to make sure he was armed in the event of something going wrong.  
  
The only other people in the hold with him were Mina, Hartdegen, and Jekyll. It had been decided that Terry, Skinner and Nemo should wait in the Nautilus until Sawyer had explained to his aunt what the League was all about, and Mina, Hartdegen and Jekyll did look the most normal out of all of them. Besides, Mina thought that she might as well meet the woman who had raised Sawyer, and the woman who had once held his heart.  
  
As the Nautilus finally came to a halt, Sawyer glanced back at his three friends and grinned.  
  
"Well, we're here," he said, before glancing over at Jekyll. "Hyde will be quiet, right?" he asked. "I just don't want you freaking Aunt Polly out by talking to him."  
  
"I'll trying and ignore him," Jekyll promised. "Besides, I've left my serum in my cabin, so maybe he'll leave me alone if it isn't too easy to make me let him out."  
  
"Good," Sawyer said, glancing around at the other two. "Let's go."  
  
No sooner had those words left his lips then Captain Nemo walked into the hold and glanced over at the four of them.  
  
"We have arrived, Mr Sawyer," the Indian captain said. Then he frowned. "This entire area appears to be nothing more than a simple fishing town. Are you sure we are in the correct place?"  
  
"Yeah, couldn't we have made a wrong turning somewhere?" Skinner asked, as he walked in after Nemo, wearing his coat and hat but with his face paint and glasses conspicuous by their absence. "Just, no offence intended, but this place looks like somewhere where I'D have grown up, not you."  
  
Sawyer smiled at the former thief. "No offence taken, Skinner. But we're in the right place, I can assure you of that." He turned towards the door in front of them, but then glanced back at Nemo and Skinner. "Don't forget; I'll call you guys once I've explained who you all are to Aunt Polly and Becky."  
  
"Check," Skinner grinned, as he and Nemo turned around and walked out of the hold. At the same time, the door to the outside world opened, letting in the brilliant sunlight. Glancing outside, Sawyer saw two women standing near the harbour- master's office.  
  
He looked back at the others. "Come on, guys," he said, before he began to walk down the ramp to the ground, followed closely by Mina. Hartdegen and Jekyll bought up the rear, looking curiously around at their surroundings.  
  
The two women looked up at the League with a curious expression on their faces, but it changed to smiles as soon as they recognised Sawyer. The older woman had an expression on her face that was a combination of relief and disappointment, but Sawyer could understand that; he'd never exactly been an easy kid to handle as a child, and he had still been a little bit of a loose cannon before he left. He hoped that he'd be able to apologise for all that once he had the chance, but he was determined to only do it once she'd seen that he'd changed.  
  
The other woman was wearing a neutral expression. However, that didn't make her look any less beautiful to Sawyer. Her long blond hair, her blue eyes, her smooth skin... To Sawyer's mind, she was the second most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.  
  
Mina, of course, would always surpass her as far as he was concerned.  
  
"Becky," he said, nodding to her in a civil manner.  
  
"Tom," she replied, not even nodding at him in return.  
  
With only a small pang of regret, Sawyer looked over at the older woman. "Hi, Aunt Polly," he said, giving her a little smile.  
  
"Well, Tom, it's good to see you arriving in a bit more style than last time," Polly replied, looking back at the Nautilus, before turning to face the rest of the League. "And in better company. Who are your friends?"  
  
Hartdegen was the first one to respond to that. "Alexander Hartdegen, a former physics teacher at the New York University. I'd glad to meet you, ma'am; your nephew is an excellent young man, and a fine friend," he said, as he held out his right hand.  
  
Aunt Polly took Hartdegen's offered hand and shook it, with a slightly confused look on her face. Hartdegen then moved over to shake Becky's hand, but she shook in a slightly cool manner, as though she was only partly acknowledging his existence.  
  
Jekyll was next. "Doctor Henry Jekyll. A pleasure, Miss Sawyer, Miss Thatcher," he said, shaking her hand as well.  
  
"Mrs Wilhemina Harker," Mina said, stepping in as Jekyll left. "My friends call me Mina," she added as she shook Aunt Polly's hand.  
  
"Oh," Aunt Polly said, with a very confused expression on her face. She looked over at Sawyer. "Tom, would you mind telling me what you're doing in the company of such a diverse range of people?"  
  
"Well, that's a slightly strange story, Aunt Polly," Sawyer said, shrugging a little. "But, in a nutshell, we're a group of people with unique gifts who've come together to fight threats and people who are just too big for the usual law enforcement agencies." He sighed. "I suppose you could call me its leader, given that nobody else has ever really taken charge of us in a fight."  
  
"Really?" Becky asked, looking over at Sawyer for the first time since he'd greeted her. "And what exactly gave you the right to take that role on?"  
  
Sawyer looked over at her with a slightly harsh expression in his eyes. "I was given some training by our original leader, Becky," he said, emphasising her name like it was a swear word. "His name was Allan Quartermain. In his time he was the greatest hero of the British Empire, facing peril the likes of which you can't imagine..." Here Sawyer briefly paused, sighing deeply before continuing. "And he gave his life to save mine."  
  
"Oh," Becky said, sounding almost sympathetic.  
  
Almost.  
  
Sawyer nearly hit her. How could she be so cold? Wasn't it obvious that he regarded Allan as the closest thing to a father he'd ever had? Obvious that he constantly felt that he should have died instead of Allan? Obvious that he sometimes felt like hitting himself for-  
  
He broke off that line of thought before it reached its conclusion. He doubted it would be a pleasant one for anyone concerned, and besides, there was still the crime spree to deal with right now.  
  
"Anyway, that's neither here nor there," he said, getting back on track. "The point is, we're here about that crime spree that's been going around here lately. Any clues as to where they're hiding out yet?" he said, glancing over at Becky.  
  
"Mmm? Oh, no, nothing yet," Becky replied, in her now infuriating cold manner. "I believe that's what you and your friends are here to find out- assuming you can, of course."  
  
*****  
  
That was enough for Hartdegen. He didn't know much about the woman, beyond that she was Sawyer's ex, but he was already feeling slightly annoyed at her general attitude towards the League.  
  
"Miss Thatcher," he put in suddenly, making her turn around and stare at him. "I may not know you, nor you me, but I'm prepared to give you a bit of time to show what you can do before I start criticising you and whatever it is you can do. Therefore, until you know exactly WHAT talent we possess that makes us unique, just keep your opinions to yourself."  
  
Sawyer gave Hartdegen a quick thumbs up at that comment, and Mina looked like she approved of it as well. Jekyll wasn't giving any outward signs as to what he thought about Hartdegen's little speech, but a slight sparkle in his eyes told Hartdegen that Jekyll was in favour of his comment as well.  
  
On the other hand, Sawyer's aunt didn't exactly look thrilled at Hartdegen's comment. Fortunately, Sawyer hit upon just what to do at that exact moment.  
  
"Well, guys, shall we get going?" he asked, looking around at them all.  
  
*****  
  
"Going where?" Aunt Polly asked, looking over at Sawyer, Hartdegen temporarily banished from her mind.  
  
"Well, to our place, of course," Sawyer said, smiling at her. "After all, I feel like you two deserves an explanation as to what exactly these guys can do that makes them extraordinary, and these guys could do with getting to know you all better. Becky, could I have a quick word, please?" he asked, looking over at her.  
  
"Well... I suppose," Becky replied, as Aunt Polly turned around and began to head towards her house, followed by Hartdegen, Mina and Jekyll.  
  
As soon as they were out of earshot, Sawyer grabbed Becky's arm and yanked her towards him until they were almost nose-to-nose.  
  
"What the HELL was that all about?!" he hissed at her angrily. "You were acting like some stuck-up prick in front of all of us! You were never like that before!"  
  
"Well, TOM," Becky replied, in a similar tone of voice, "In case you hadn't noticed, we are no longer involved, and you have no right to give me your opinions on my conduct, no matter whether you like it or not. Like it or not, I've moved on from you."  
  
Tom groaned. He hated it when she was like this. Deciding he'd just ignore things for the moment, he turned around and began to walk after the others. Then, just before he rounded a corner, he turned back to look at Becky.  
  
"Oh, and by the way," he said, sneering at her slightly. "You're not the only one who's moved on."  
  
Then he turned back around and began to walk away, leaving Becky standing in the street, confused and angry.  
  
*****  
  
"So, Tom, exactly what is so extraordinary about your friends?" Aunt Polly asked him a couple of hours later, as he sat sipping at a glass of water in the kitchen. "Come to that, what qualities do you possess that let you in?"  
  
"Mostly, it's just what Quartermain taught me to do," Sawyer replied, looking over at his aunt as she sat in the chair opposite him. "Namely, hit objects that are so far away practically nobody else could hit them. Still, the others are definitely impressive, all six of them."  
  
"Six?" Aunt Polly asked. "I only saw three of them."  
  
"Well, the other three are just a bit TOO extraordinary," Sawyer explained. "I figured it was probably best for me to just fill you in on some of our abilities before they dropped in."  
  
"Ah. So, what can they all do?" Aunt Polly asked.  
  
"Well, Hartdegen has a time machine and commonly gets us technology from the future in the event of a really difficult mission," Sawyer explained. "Jekyll has this serum which turns him into an eight-foot-tall engine of destruction called Edward Hyde whenever he drinks it, but he's managing to keep Hyde under control in recent times. The captain of that ship we arrived in, the Nautilus, is called Captain Nemo, and is an expert with technology and in the martial arts. One member, Terry, has a very complicated back story, and Rodney Skinner is an invisible man."  
  
Aunt Polly just stared as Tom recounted these facts to her, not saying a word. Then, she finally broke the silence that had descended upon them. "And Mrs Harker? Where's her husband?"  
  
"He died," Sawyer sighed. "She serves as our resident chemist, and, well, she's a vampire-"  
  
Here Aunt Polly spoke, partly in horror and partly in disbelief.  
  
"A VAMPIRE?! You're working with... with a MONSTER?"  
  
"She's not like normal vampires," Sawyer replied, trying to not loose his temper. He'd rather not get into trouble with his aunt at an already difficult time. "She keeps her instincts under control, and never kills the innocent. She's the most... well, there isn't a word to describe what she is the most of, but she is. And, well, the thing is..." He sighed. Best to get this out of the way as soon as possible. "I love her. And she loves me."  
  
Aunt Polly slumped back into her chair  
  
"You... love her?" she asked, looking up at her nephew.  
  
Sawyer smiled. "Yeah, I do. She's such an incredible person, Aunt Polly. Don't be prejudiced against her because of what she is. She's strong, determined, courageous, beautiful, intelligent... everything a man could want in a woman. An old friend of hers once described her as one of those women sent by the Lord to show us that there is a heaven, and that parts of it can be found on this world. I try to treat her as such, and I always will."  
  
*****  
  
Aunt Polly smiled a little as she the expression on her nephew's face. This woman was definitely something special to him, his expression alone told her that. Besides, it would appear that the woman was helping him become a better person than he had been as a child, and that was a good thing in her book.  
  
She glanced over at Sawyer, and saw that he had fallen asleep in his chair. Sighing, she got up and walked out of the room and up to bed. Sawyer had an in-built ability to sleep anywhere for any length of time, so he'd be perfectly fine in a chair. Right now, she just wanted them all to get some rest before they got on with tracking down the criminals.  
  
With abilities like this, they could hardly fail to be successful. 


	3. Pirahna Hunting

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
Resurrection  
  
A few hours later that night, the League were all gathered outside the Nautilus, trying to decide what to do to track down the gang.  
  
After a couple of hours sleep, Sawyer had woken up and decided it was time for them to be getting on with tracking down the gang that had been causing so much trouble. Having woken up the other League members, the four of them had sneaked out of the Sawyer household and headed back to the Nautilus, Mina using her bats to get inside and open the doors. They had then awakened the other three League members, while Jekyll picked up a phial of his serum from his room.  
  
The only problem was, now that they were ready, they weren't entirely sure what to do.  
  
"You forgot to ask for details about the crimes?!" Skinner asked, looking over at Sawyer. "You really need to keep better track of things!"  
  
"Look," Sawyer groaned, getting slightly frustrated at this whole situation even before it had started, "Is it my fault that people haven't been keeping records of the crimes anywhere other than the police station, which is closed, and I didn't exactly feel like waiting another night to stop these... 'Piranhas', if that's what they call themselves, from terrorising my home before someone gets killed? Because if it is, I'm sorry for caring about the people and the place that shaped me into the man I am. OK?"  
  
Skinner groaned. He hated it when his mouth acted ahead of his brain. "Good point," he sighed.  
  
"Right then," Nemo said, glancing around at what could be seen of the town from the harbour. "We should be getting on with locating where the thieves are at present. Has anyone got any suggestions?"  
  
"Well, I have one idea, but I'm not sure if it's all that successful," Jekyll said, raising one hand.  
  
"Any idea would be good right now," Sawyer replied, looking over at the doctor. "Let's hear it, Jekyll."  
  
"Well, it occurred to me that this town isn't exactly one of the larger cities we've ever been in," Jekyll explained. "What I'm saying is, maybe, if we got up to a high enough point in the city, those of us with good night-time vision- namely, Mr Nator, Mrs Harker, and Edward- could try and see if they could spot the criminals as they attack. Even if we can't stop them, we could at least try and find out what they were after."  
  
The League looked around at each, each one starting to slowly nod their heads in agreement.  
  
"That could work," Hartdegen said, nodding.  
  
"Yes, it has an extremely large success margin," Terry put in. "I have run over all available data already, and of the seven other potential methods of dealing with this problem that have occurred to me, that one still has the best chance of success." He glanced over at Sawyer. "Would you agree, Tom?"  
  
Sawyer briefly stood still in thought, and then he slowly nodded.  
  
"It's got a good chance of success, as Terry said himself," he said, smiling a little as he spoke. "This place only has about three tall buildings that can give you that good a view of the city, so the three of you can take one each. I only have one condition to make. Jekyll; Nemo's coming with you."  
  
"Any reason why, Mr Sawyer?" Nemo asked.  
  
"If Jekyll's serum runs out while he's in the middle of a fight, you'd be the most help to him in close quarters," Sawyer replied. He looked over at Skinner and Hartdegen. "Alex, you stick with Terry just in case. Skinner, you're with me; there's one part of town that none of the others will be able to get a good look at, and you're the member who's got the most chance of spotting the gang without them spotting you." He looked around at the entire League, and nodded. "Let's go."  
  
With that, the League all turned around and walked off in four directions. Sawyer offered up a silent prayer that, if anyone found these criminals, it would be him. Not because he thought he'd be the League member who'd be most capable of teaching them a lesson. If any member of the League was capable of really giving criminals a hard time, he'd have to say it was Hyde.  
  
No, it was the simple fact that this case was personal.  
  
And he wanted it settled personally.  
  
*****  
  
After almost an hour of solid walking, there was still no sign of any action. Skinner was complaining about him having sore legs, Sawyer was feeling slightly tired from lack of sleep, and there was still no sign of anyone who looked even remotely criminal. Skinner had once commented that he was surprised at the lack of any even minor criminals in the streets, but Sawyer had just gotten him to shut up by pointing out that there wasn't really anything in the town that was worth stealing.  
  
Then again, maybe Skinner was just feeling cold. After all, Sawyer had practically forced him to get his hat, coat and face paint off, and they hadn't needed him to be invisible so far. Sawyer was starting to think it might be a good idea to give the thief his coat back, at least, when he suddenly saw something move in the street in front of them.  
  
"Stop!" he hissed sharply, and something pulled to a halt beside him, at where he estimated Skinner to be.  
  
Drawing his pistol, Sawyer walked slowly forward, Skinner's footsteps barely audible beside him. As they reached the corner of the street, Sawyer pressed his back against the wall.  
  
"Skinner?" he whispered.  
  
"Yeah?" the thief's familiar voice said from beside him.  
  
"Check to see who's there and what they're doing," Sawyer whispered, as he quickly checked his guns for bullets. "Give me any relevant information on them that you can get just by looking, ESPECIALLY if they appear to heading for any buildings and look even remotely criminal."  
  
"Then what?" Skinner whispered back. "We call the others for backup?"  
  
Sawyer shook his head. "No way we could do that without alerting the crooks to the fact that we're here. We'll just have to tackle them ourselves. Shouldn't be too hard; after all, they can't see you, and I'm not exactly a bad shot. Plus, we have the advantage of surprise; we were looking for them. They weren't looking for us."  
  
Skinner sighed. Sawyer then heard someone start to walk around him, and knew that the thief was taking his look now.  
  
After a couple of minutes, Skinner was whispering to him again.  
  
"It's the criminals," Skinner said, sounding extremely annoyed at that. "There's six of them, all wearing what almost looks like chain mail, or maybe that armour that Moriarty's lot wore, it's hard to tell from here, what with them having their shirts over them. They're attacking this house pretty near the other end of the street; they've got guns, but it's only pistols."  
  
"Good," Sawyer said, as he clicked the hammers on his pistols and held them up beside his head. "No armour on their heads, right?"  
  
"Nope," Skinner said.  
  
"Right," Sawyer said, sticking one gun under his chin and reaching into his pocket, from which he pulled out a pocket-watch. He glanced at it, and then slipped it back.  
  
"It's three-forty right now, Skinner," he said, looking at where he thought the thief was currently. "You've got five minutes to sneak around the back of those criminals, and grab their guns. If you aren't done by then, duck and get out of the way." He raised his pistols again. "I'll be aiming at around head height."  
  
*****  
  
Skinner nodded. Then, remembering that Sawyer couldn't see it, he patted the agent on the arm and dived out into the streets, running towards the criminals as silently as he dared.  
  
He noticed with great relief that the thieves were having some trouble with the door. It was obvious they weren't very experienced at this work; none of them looked like they even knew how to begin to pick a lock. He was prepared to bet good money (Or he would have been, if he had any on him) that these guys were trying to avoid attracting attention in this area for some reason.  
  
Then again, Skinner supposed there was a good reason for that. Looking around this area, Skinner got the impression that it held the rougher characters in this village; even with their guns, these guys could be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. However, since they didn't have the time to gather reinforcements, and neither Sawyer nor Skinner wanted to endanger innocent people, it was just them and the crooks, outnumbered by three to one and with all the crooks officially classified as armed and dangerous.  
  
Time he started evening the odds then.  
  
Sneaking forward, Skinner reached towards the holsters of the man at the back of the group. They were mostly clustered around the door like a bunch of eager children straining to get at a long-desired toy or book, oblivious to anything going on around them.  
  
That made the whole business all too easy. Reaching forward, he grabbed the handles of the man's two pistols, and slowly took them out of their holsters. Then, he had them.  
  
With nowhere else to put them, he was forced to creep off to a nearby abandoned building and drop the pistols in through a broken window. Then he was sneaking back to the gathering, where he tried to grab another couple of guns. Unfortunately, due to the fact that everyone in the group was so tightly clustered together, he was only able to take one pistol from the guy on the far left, and even that was a close call.  
  
Sneaking over to the other side of the gathering, Skinner pulled out another gun, before sneaking back off to where he'd dumped the stolen weapons off the first time. Then he was back, trying to find an opening to let him grab another gun. One man disarmed and two with only half their expected firepower gave Sawyer better odds, but not by-  
  
Sawyer.  
  
Glancing back down the street, he say the spy begin to emerge from the shadows, and realised that his time had just run out.  
  
Time to make some kind of a difference.  
  
Grabbing a pistol from the crook that was nearest to him, Skinner raised the gun and fired six wild shots at the six men in front of him. Then he dropped the gun and ran, as the crooks reeled from the sudden attack.  
  
As Sawyer started to fire his own bullets, Skinner glanced back to observe his handiwork. No men were dead, but three of them were bleeding, although unfortunately none of the wounds would be fatal.  
  
Fortunately, Sawyer remedied that little fact very quickly. He didn't quite appear to be aiming as well as he normally did- on a good day he'd probably have downed at least three of these suckers before they could get their guns out. As it was, only one was dead right now, although a second one appeared to be close to joining him. Two of the others were still standing, although they were bleeding a little, and a fifth had a couple of bullets lodged in his leg in a manner which didn't appear to be helping him keep on living. The sixth, however, was still standing, mainly due to the fact that he was right next to the door and so had all the others in between him and the spy. Pulling out his pistols, he aimed at Sawyer.  
  
"Good shots," he said to the American, as he clicked the hammers on his guns back. "You have a natural talent."  
  
"Part natural, part training," Sawyer replied, as he stared back at the criminal. Skinner was briefly confused as to why Sawyer wasn't shooting, but then it came to him; pistols could only hold six bullets, and he wasn't sure if Sawyer had fired five times or six. Either he still had one bullet in each gun, or he had none, and he wasn't willing fire and find out which one of the two it was; the consequences if there weren't any bullets weren't worth thinking about.  
  
Glancing around at the other criminals, Skinner noticed that at least none of the other ones standing could do anything; the guns that Skinner hadn't managed to steal had either been damaged by one of Sawyer's bullets or had fallen underneath one of the still-fresh corpses. Only one guy didn't fit into either of the previous categories, and he had bullets in both his arms.  
  
Skinner ran over his options as what he could do now. He could just leave Sawyer to handle it, but if the spy had no bullets then he was as good as dead. He could try and take out the guy himself, but he still wasn't sure if he could hit a man hard enough to knock him out with only one blow by himself, and besides, what if Sawyer fired while Skinner was sneaking up on the criminal, and there were bullets in his guns, and one of them...  
  
Skinner realised this wasn't getting him anywhere. Quickly, he raised one finger and waved it around in front of a wall opposite him, with a window nearby; if his hand tapped glass when he'd stopped spinning it, he'd help Sawyer, and if it hit stone, he wouldn't.  
  
He hit glass.  
  
Turning around, he prepared to charge forward and tackle the guy to his knees, when, without any warning, both of the men fired their guns.  
  
As it turned out, Sawyer did still have two bullets left to him, both of them striking one of the criminals in front of him.  
  
Unfortunately, due to the fact that the criminal he was facing had fired his guns first, it wasn't him who Sawyer killed. It was, instead, the one who'd been bleeding to death from a leg wound already.  
  
Glancing over at Sawyer, Skinner was relieved to see that he was still breathing; the last thing he wanted was an angry Mina on his case, and who knew how Terry would react upon learning he'd failed in his mission. However, two bullets were lodged in Sawyer's chest, in a manner that didn't look very encouraging; Skinner doubted they'd kill him quickly, but he'd need to get Jekyll or Terry to have a look at them fairly soon.  
  
Looking back, he noticed that the three remaining criminals were walking towards Sawyer's downed body. He quickly backed away from the unconscious spy; not so far away that he couldn't do anything to help if they tried to kill him, but far enough away so that nobody would run into him by mistake.  
  
The crook that had fired the bullets crouched down beside Sawyer and checked his pulse before looking up at his wounded comrades.  
  
"He's not in the best of shape, but he'll survive," he said to them both. Then a wicked grin spread across his face. "Of course, it all depends on what the Shark wants done with him."  
  
The Shark? Skinner thought, looking around at the other criminals for any sign as to who that was, but they didn't look any different to him. Then a thought occurred to him. If these called themselves the Piranhas, then maybe their boss just tried to establish his superiority over them by naming himself after an even deadlier fish.  
  
At least, Skinner thought that sharks were deadlier. Who could really say these days?  
  
"You're sure this is the one he wanted, Fusco?" one of the others asked the crook who'd fired. "He doesn't seem up to much."  
  
"The Shark gave me a very accurate description of the League, Holden," Fusco replied, as he hauled Sawyer up and hooked the comatose agent's left arm around his neck. "This is Agent Sawyer, you can be assured of that."  
  
This isn't good, Skinner thought to himself, as the criminals started to walk away. If this 'Shark', whoever he was, wanted Sawyer, he was prepared to bet it wasn't for anything good. Right now, he had two options. Firstly, he could head back to the others and get their help, by which point it may be nearly impossible to find Sawyer, or he could follow the criminals to their hideout and then find the rest of the League, hopefully before the Shark did anything.  
  
After only a few seconds, Skinner was running after the criminals as fast as he could, praying that he could get the League before anything happened to Sawyer if the need arose. 


	4. Revelations

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
funyun: Good point about the guns; Skinner would have grabbed them but he was just too occupied with the criminal to remember them.  
  
Resurrection  
  
"Uh... what hit me?" Sawyer asked, wincing a little as he opened his eyes. He quickly examined his surroundings; he was in some kind of cave, but it had several pieces of furniture in it. Well, not where he was; the part of the cave where was right now was just a moderately sized chamber, may ten feet wide and eight feet high. The only sign it was actually used was a candle on one wall near him, that cast a very comforting light on the whole place.  
  
He noticed several guns lying down on shelves in a large chamber just outside his one, and a couple of wooden chairs in front of him. However, that didn't really serve to distract him from the pain he was feeling in his head. "I feel like I was blown to Mars and back..."  
  
"You know, that is a very intriguing suggestion," a voice said, from somewhere off to Sawyer's right. "Maybe I should think about sending you there; I've heard that you thwarted the efforts of the Martians to take over this planet, and they probably wouldn't be too pleased to see you."  
  
Glancing to his right, Sawyer looked at the man who'd been speaking to him. He was a tall man, maybe around Hartdegen's height, with dirty brown hair hanging down at the back of his head. He was dressed in a simple black suit and a long black cloak, carrying a silver-and-black stick. The cloak had a slight trace of fur around its edge, the fur being light grey with some spots of black in them, and reached down so far that a little bit of it was dragging along the ground.  
  
However, the most distinctive thing about the man was the mask he was wearing; a silvery colour, it stretched all the way around his head, leaving only the mouth and the right eye showing. The eye looked fairly normal, but the left side of the mouth forced downward slightly, as though something were pulling on it. Sawyer noted that the man's left arm was slightly lower then normal, as though whatever was pulling his mouth down was forcing his arm down as well.  
  
The man's mask had a few small points around the mouth, along with a tiny fin sticking out of the back and some small lines scratched into the side, giving the man a slight resemblance to a shark.  
  
"I wouldn't recommend it," Sawyer replied, looking the man in the eye.  
  
"Recommend what?" the man asked, casually leaning forward with his cane.  
  
"Sending me to Mars," Sawyer replied, trying to sound better than he felt. "The Martians don't really like humanity in general; they'd probably kill whoever you sent with me as well."  
  
"I'd be prepared to run that risk," the man replied, crouching down to look Sawyer in the eyes. "Believe me, if you knew who you were talking to, you'd really be scared of what I might do to you." Then he punched Sawyer in the stomach.  
  
Hard.  
  
Sawyer gasped briefly at the pain, and he noticed a small speck of red appear on the man's mask. It must have come from his mouth, which meant he was more hurt then he'd guessed.  
  
Looking down at himself, Sawyer noticed that there were a couple of spots of red on the right side of his shirt. It didn't look like they'd connected with any major organs, but he'd definitely like to have someone take a look at them soon.  
  
Looking up at the man, Sawyer decided to get the most obvious question out of the way.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked.  
  
The man smirked. "I have a real name, but you would recognise it instantly, and I'd rather save it for a better moment. For now, just call me... the Shark."  
  
"'The Shark'?" Sawyer asked, in a mocking tone of voice. "You've gotta be kidding me; 'the Fantom' was lame enough."  
  
The Shark growled and kicked Sawyer in the stomach; Sawyer gasped again, and this time the blood from his mouth hit the floor. Glancing at it, Sawyer noticed there was slightly more of it than there had been the last time, but it still wasn't a massive amount.  
  
The Shark leaned towards Sawyer, and spoke to him in a voice that was remarkably like a growling dog.  
  
"The Fantom was only the herald for a new era of villain, Sawyer," he said, sounding like he wanted to yank Sawyer's head off. "I am the second of his kind, and I will not fail where he did." Then he spun around, flaring his cloak out in an overly dramatic gesture, and walked out of the room.  
  
Groaning a little, Sawyer looked up at where the Shark had left his prison. However, there was nobody anywhere near him; there were a couple of guards about four feet outside his prison's door, but that was it. Evidently nobody considered him worth close attention; after all, he had only had two pistols on him when he was captured, and both of those had run out of bullets. He wasn't really that much of a threat right now, chained up, wounded, bleeding from the mouth...  
  
"What the hell did they do to you, kid?" a voice suddenly whispered to him from the side. Sawyer didn't even need to look up to know it was; only one man had that accent and could get this far in without being caught.  
  
"Skinner?" he asked, looking at where he hoped the invisible man was. "How'd you get here?" The he mentally kicked himself for asking such a stupid question; getting into this place was no issue at all for an invisible man. "Come to that, where is here?"  
  
"Some cave off at the edge of your town," Skinner whispered, as he moved over to the chains and apparently started tugging at them. "Big, but what I've seen of these guys suggests they only moved in recently. They've taken your pistols, and I noticed my stuff lying on a table with them as well."  
  
"Caves..." Sawyer grumbled to himself, not really paying attention to Skinner's comment about the coat and guns, before looking in Skinner's direction with a gleam of hope in his eyes. "Get back to the League, let them know where I am, and then get Becky."  
  
*****  
  
"Becky? Sawyer, no offence intended, but is dragging your ex along really a sensible idea?" Skinner asked, as he tried tugging on Sawyer's chains again, hoping against hope that they'd be a little looser now. "If nothing else, how happy would Mina be about it?"  
  
"Skinner, I know where I am," Sawyer hissed to the thief, signalling to him to stop tugging on the chains and listen to him. "I'm in these old treasure caves where Becky and I once got lost as children and found some gold. Apart from me, she's the only person here who really knows her way around these caves. Threaten to shoot her if you have to, just get her here!" he said, hissing the last sentence in Skinner's general direction.  
  
Skinner nodded and patted Sawyer assuringly on the shoulder. "Check," he whispered to his friend. "Hang tight, buddy; the League will be here soon."  
  
Then he turned around and hurried out of Sawyer's prison and through the cave as fast as he could without making any noise. He had no idea how long he'd have until the Shark dropped in on Sawyer again, but he got the impression that he didn't want to be too late.  
  
If no other reason worked, there was the fact that Mina would probably kill him for letting Tom die.  
  
He was out of the cave, and quickened his pace.  
  
*****  
  
"Well, that was mostly pointless," Hartdegen groaned, as he and Terry finally arrived at the Nautilus after spending nearly two hours waiting for something to happen. Eventually, they'd been contacted by Mina, who'd told them to leave the tower and rendezvous back at the submarine to discuss another strategy.  
  
Looking around, Hartdegen noticed that Hyde and Nemo were already back, although Hyde was looking on edge and annoyed, in a manner that Hartdegen recognised as being his usual attitude before his formula ran out. However, Mina, Sawyer, and Skinner were conspicuous by their absence, although admittedly, in Skinner's case, just because Hartdegen couldn't see anything didn't mean he wasn't there.  
  
"Ah, good, you're here," Nemo said, glancing over at the teacher and the machine. He and Hyde were currently sitting outside the Nautilus with a few large sticks laid out in front of them. When Hartdegen got closer, he realised what they were playing.  
  
Noughts and Crosses.  
  
"How long have you been waiting for us?" he asked the Indian, as Terry came to a stop behind him.  
  
"A while," Nemo replied, as he and Hyde put down the sticks they had been using to draw in the dust for their game. "Evidently, either Mrs Harker isn't as fast a flyer as we think, or Mr Nator is simply not as fast as Mr Hyde."  
  
"Well, that's life," Terry replied, shrugging a little. "Where are the others?"  
  
"We don't know right now," Hyde grunted simply. "Mina said she'd find them, but if she hasn't shown up by now, maybe it's time to get worried... worri... wor... wor... AARRGGHH!" Hyde yelled, as there were several small explosions around him and he began to shrink. His muscles contracted, his bones got smaller, his hair grew longer... A few seconds later, the familiar form of Doctor Jekyll was standing in front of his three team-mates, trying to hold his trousers up and looking in a slightly embarrassed manner at them all.  
  
"Well, at least that's that done," Hartdegen said, shrugging a little at the others.  
  
"Pardon?" Nemo asked, looking over at Hartdegen.  
  
"Well, at least his formula ran out now, rather than while he was hanging around on the rooftops of this place," Hartdegen explained, Jekyll nodding a little in agreement. "Now, we just need to wait for mina to get back with Skinner and Sawyer, and we can start thinking of a better plan."  
  
At that moment, several bats flew in to gather beside Terry. As soon as the bats had landed, they turned into the familiar form of Mina Harker.  
  
"Ah, you're back," Nemo said, standing up and looking at her. "How long until we can expect the company of Mr Sawyer and Mr Skinner?"  
  
"I don't know," Mina said, looking at the four of them with a slight edge of fear in her eyes. Even before she spoke again, Hartdegen knew what she was going to say; only one thing could put that much fear into the eyes of this woman.  
  
Fear for the life of the man she loved.  
  
"You couldn't find them," Jekyll said, beating Hartdegen to it.  
  
"No," Mina sighed, looking at them all anxiously. "I was hoping that they had simply returned home of their own accord, but if they aren't here now..." She sighed.  
  
Just then, something ran smack into Jekyll, knocking him over. The League quickly spun around to see what had hit him, but relaxed when they realised they couldn't see anything.  
  
"Skinner, you're back!" Hartdegen said, grinning in Jekyll's direction as the doctor got up and dusted himself down. At the same, a human shape right beside him, visible only through the dust that now covered it, began to scrape off its own grim.  
  
However, before Skinner could finish the job, he found himself grabbed around the throat and hauled into the air by Mina.  
  
"Where. Is. He?" she hissed at the thief, holding him close to her face and bearing her fangs.  
  
Skinner shivered. "Well, y'see, Mina, that's a long and interesting story..."  
  
"Make it shorter," Mina whispered to him, digging her nails into his neck slightly. The other three just watched the scene in front of them; they knew how Mina could get when the subject came up of Sawyer being in any kind of danger, and the only thing to do when she got in this kind of mood was leave her alone.  
  
"Basically," Skinner said, sounding slightly panicky and on-edge, "we found the criminals, Sawyer got shot and captured by the criminals, he's being held prisoner by the boss, guy who calls himself 'the Shark', they're in some caves nearby, and he wants us to get Becky Thatcher to help us because she's the only person available who knows the caves well, and could you possibly drop me before you break my neck?"  
  
Mina let go of the thief, and Skinner dropped to the ground. Fortunately, his feet had been fairly close to it even when Mina had been holding him above her head, so he was generally in good shape, apart from being a little shaken.  
  
Mina looked over to the others. "Everyone get organised at once; we have to rescue Tom," she said, looking more angry than anyone could remember seeing her.  
  
Then again, this was the first serious trouble to happen to Agent Sawyer since the two of them had become involved. Mina had every right to feel angry, and nobody was going to try to calm her down.  
  
*****  
  
Mina snapped out even more orders. "Doctor Jekyll, get a shirt and jacket on and grab a new phial of your formula. Nemo, you, Skinner and Hartdegen get us all some weapons. Terry, you're with me; we have to pick up Miss Thatcher."  
  
"Are you sure about that?" Terry asked, looking at Mina with his usual blank expression, made even more prominent by the dark glasses he'd recently purchased to replace Skinner's borrowed pince-nez (Not that it made much difference; Terry's eyes never showed emotion, and, no matter what else he learned from the League, probably never would.)  
  
"Honestly? No," Mina replied, looking over at the machine. "But we need help if we're going to get Tom out of those caves alive, and if he thinks that Miss Thatcher is the best person to guide us through the caves, we need her assistance."  
  
"And if she doesn't want to come?" Terry asked, as the two of them began to walk away from the Nautilus.  
  
Mina's expression hardened and she flexed her fingers. "We'll make her."  
  
*****  
  
Becky couldn't sleep.  
  
She'd managed to catch a couple of hour's sleep upon arriving home, but after that she'd been woken up by the sound of activity in the hall outside her door. She'd taken a peek outside and had seen that it was none other than Tom and all his... teammates? Friends? What was the correct term for his relationship with those guys?  
  
Then it had occurred to her.  
  
Family.  
  
They were his family. The way he acted around them was enough for that to be clear to someone who'd known Tom for so long, and she was one of the few who qualified these days. He regarded all three of the people who'd come with him as his family; Hartdegen was like a cousin to him, Jekyll a kind uncle, and Mina, well, that one was obvious to anyone.  
  
He loved her.  
  
And she loved him.  
  
Becky couldn't decide what to feel about that. She'd told herself that she'd gotten over Tom ever since the death of Joe Harper all those years ago; they'd drifted part after that, and when Becky had ended up with another man she cared for, David Garcia, she'd basically pushed Tom to the back of her thoughts. Even after she'd ended things with David, anything she'd heard about Tom had been acquired from Huckleberry Finn, Tom's oldest friend. She'd learned about the two joining the American Secret Service, about all their various missions, and even about the man known only as the Fantom.  
  
Then Huck had died.  
  
From there on in, she'd just completely lost touch with things where Tom was concerned. She'd heard about a couple of rumours from Jim that Tom had joined a rather unique group, but had dismissed it as just that; a story.  
  
Now he'd returned home with that very group.  
  
And he was romantically involved with another woman.  
  
And Becky was feeling insanely jealous. She wasn't even sure what qualities the woman possessed that allowed her to work with the others- come to that, she wasn't even sure what the others could do that made them extraordinary. She thought she recalled reading about Hartdegen in a paper sometime- some physics professor in New York, had odd theories about time travel if she remembered correctly- but Jekyll was a bit of an enigma to her, to say nothing of Mina.  
  
What qualities did she have that made Sawyer prefer her to Becky?  
  
Did I just think that? Becky asked herself. I mean, she'd always felt like she had some sort of feelings for Sawyer even after their break-up, but actually feeling jealous about his current lover? She'd never felt that before, despite what she'd heard from Huck about some of the things Sawyer had done on his missions- a couple of one-night-stands to get information, never anything serious-, but, then again, maybe that was because he only even touched them because he needed to get information.  
  
But Mina... he was actually in love with her.  
  
And the problem was... Mina loved Tom back, while she, Becky Thatcher, was also in love with him.  
  
And she wasn't sure what to do about it.  
  
Suddenly, her thoughts were broken into by a sharp knocking on her door.  
  
Shaking her head to clear it, she got out of her bed, shrugged on her robe, and opened the door.  
  
Standing outside it were Mina Harker and a tall, muscular man who she didn't recognise.  
  
The two of them walked into the room without even paying attention to Becky's state of undress. The man just stopped right in the middle of her room as though he was a statue, while Mina walked right over to Becky's wardrobe, tore it open, pulled out one of Becky's dresses, and thrown it over to her.  
  
"Get dressed," she said simply, as Becky caught the dress and stared at it. She looked up at Mina.  
  
"Is there any particular reason for this?" she asked the mysterious woman.  
  
"Yes," Mina replied, turning around to look at the woman. "Tom is being held captive by the criminals we came here to find, and their headquarters is some old caves outside this town. According to Tom, you are one of the few people who knows their way around the caves, so we are going to need your assistance to get him out."  
  
Becky raced over her options in her head. She could refuse, and leave the League to get Tom out of this situation by themselves. It was tempting. After all, what was he to her? Just some old boyfriend, who'd shut himself off from her after a friend had died, who'd never bothered to come in contact with her since...  
  
And whom she still loved, in spite of everything. That simple fact made up her mind for her.  
  
"I'm in," she said, nodding at Mina. "Let me get dressed, and I'll be right with you."  
  
Mina nodded. "We'll wait for you outside," she said, as she and the man walked out of the room.  
  
*****  
  
What's this guy trying to do, BORE me to death? Sawyer asked himself, as he hung from his chains in the cave, looking around himself as he tried to get a better idea of his surroundings. He hadn't seen any sign of the Shark since Skinner had left, and he was starting to wonder if anything was going to happen, or if the Shark intended to leave him to starve to death.  
  
Actually, that wasn't a very entertaining prospect, not that he thought about it.  
  
Just then, he heard a slight swishing at the entrance to his prison. Looking up, he saw the Shark walking into his prison cell, a gleam in his eye and a smile on the right side of his mouth.  
  
"Ah, you're still awake," he said, grinning at Sawyer with a gleam in his eye that reminded Sawyer of Dracula. "Good. I wanted to let you know, your friends are coming to help you- not that it will do you much good. I have almost fifty men at the entrance to this cave, waiting for them to arrive, and even assuming they can get past that, they still have around twenty men to stop be fore they can get to you and I." Then his expression grew harder. "By that time, I doubt you'll still be standing."  
  
Sawyer just smirked at him. "You talk the talk, Shark, but can you walk the walk?" he asked mockingly, using a phrase he remembered Hartdegen mentioning once. "Your guys only took me down because I ran out of bullets; what makes you think they can handle the League?" Then a thought occurred to him. "Come to that, what's with the dumb mask?"  
  
The Shark raised one fist, as though to punch him. Then he gave another grin under his mask.  
  
"Why not?" he said, smirking a little. "After all, you might as well know why I want you dead."  
  
Turning around, he pulled at the part of the mask that was at the back of his head. The back part of the mask instantly swung upwards, exposing the man's scraggly brown hair, rather like Sawyer's own.  
  
The man pulled the rest of his mask off, and then turned back to face Sawyer.  
  
He had a young face, maybe only a year or so older than Sawyer, with brown eyes and a slight tan. However, only the right eye gave any impression of colour, since the left was badly scarred, by a long line that stretched from the man's face down to the corner of his mouth (Which was the reason for its unusual appearance), and appeared to line up exactly with his hanging arm. Based on how badly the arm appeared to be damaged, Sawyer guessed that the man had been shot from above with a large rifle, maybe a Winchester or something similar, at fairly close range, and the power of the shot had torn down his face to end in his shoulder.  
  
However, even with the scar, there was no mistaking the rest of the face.  
  
Sawyer felt his blood run cold. It couldn't be....  
  
But it was.  
  
"HUCK?!" 


	5. The Reason

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
AN: When these ~~~~~ appear at the start of something, everything that happens until they're repeated is a flashback.  
  
funyun: Yep, noughts and crosses is pretty much the same as Tic Tac Toe. Also, regarding your question, I'm saying that, if Sawyer's coughing up blood so hard that it's landing on the Shark's mask, it means that Sawyer's in worse shape than he thought he was.  
  
Niani: When you say 'random', do you mean having the villain be Huck is random? If so, I apologise, but I wanted a villain who could be a literal opposite to Sawyer, (The yin to his yang, if you will), and Huck was the only character I could think of.  
  
Resurrection  
  
Huckleberry Finn, or at least the man who once was Huckleberry Finn, gave a twisted little grin in Sawyer's direction. "You weren't expecting this, were you?" he asked, reminding Sawyer of the Fantom thanks to the gleam of madness in his eyes.  
  
Sawyer, uncertain as to what else he could do, just shrugged. "I have to admit, I wasn't," he said, trying to sound casual. "Mind telling me how you managed to survive getting shot like that?"  
  
"Ah, you mock me, Tom?" Huck asked, looking at his old friend with an expression that was as dark as Skinner's coat. "Tell me, how many missions did we share together before you decided to betray me?"  
  
"I never betrayed you," Sawyer replied, feeling a little confused at that statement.  
  
"Really?" Huck asked, throwing his mask onto the floor and walking towards Sawyer. He bent down so that he was squatting right in front of Sawyer, and glared at him. "Let me remind you then. It was on our last mission together, while we tried to hunt down the Fantom..."  
  
*****  
  
~~~~~ "He's gotta be here somewhere," Huck said, glancing over at his partner, Tom Sawyer. They had tracked their prey to this city's old warehouse district on the edge of the sea, an area with very little people already living there, and the few who did were often so drunk they could barely remember anything. In other words, the perfect place for a showdown if you didn't want anyone to know you were having one. "You're sure you saw him go this way?"  
  
Sawyer nodded, his Colt pistols steady in his hands. It was almost like the old days back home, when they played at being pirates and other things. The only real difference was that they could conceivably die now.  
  
And there were the guns, of course.  
  
"He's here, Huck," Sawyer assured his friend. "After you managed to take out his bodyguard, this is the only place he had to run to." He indicated a large warehouse in front of them, standing on support struts above the sea. In the past it had apparently been used to store carts, but these days everyone ignored it.  
  
"Chill out, Tom," Huck said, noticing that his friend was gripping his pistols so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. "He's only one man, after all."  
  
Sawyer nodded grimly. "Just remember, Huck; this guy's regarded as the most dangerous man alive right now. He may only be human, but he shouldn't be underestimated."  
  
"I'm not underestimating, I'm just being practical," Huck said, as the two of them entered the warehouse. "After all, dangerous or not, there's two of us and one of him. We've got him."  
  
They walked into the warehouse. Inside, it was pitch black, almost as dark as the graveyard back home had been the night they saw Injun Joe commit murder. There were a few boxes in a couple of places, but that was about it. However, Huck noticed something glinting off the moonlight in one corner of the room. Something that looked like a face...  
  
The Fantom's mask.  
  
Indicating the direction to Sawyer, Huck cocked his own Colts and aimed them at the man.  
  
"So, 'Fantom'," Huck said to the man in a conversational manner, "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Your choice."  
  
"Oh, by the way," Sawyer said, as he slipped his Colts into their holsters and pulled out his Winchester, "the hard way involves you getting shot. Does that make it easier to pick one?"  
  
The Fantom looked back at the two American agents, his fur coat spread out behind him, his mask covering the nasty-looking burns that were all that was visible of his face. "A valiant effort," he said, his voice sounding harsh and croaky, as though whatever had damaged his face had scarred his throat as well. "But with one fatal mistake."  
  
"That being?" Sawyer asked, steadying his Winchester.  
  
The Fantom clicked his fingers.  
  
Instantly, the warehouse lit up. Around them were sixteen of the Fantom's soldiers, each one pointing an extremely large, powerful, and fatal-looking gun at the two American agents. The soldiers were pressed against either the walls of the warehouse or some boxes that had been left in the warehouse, dressed in black clothes and armour, so it was no surprise that they hadn't managed to see them against the shadows.  
  
The Fantom grinned at the two American agents. "Are you so sure you can stop me now?" he asked, grinning at them.  
  
Sawyer and Huck glanced at each other, one thought racing through their heads.  
  
"Attack plan beta?" Sawyer asked Huck out of the corner of his mouth.  
  
Huck nodded.  
  
No sooner had his head stopped moving then Sawyer had cocked his rifle, aimed it at the nearest soldier, and fired. The bullet struck the man directly in the head, knocking him back into the nearby box and also knocking over his nearby colleague. The distraction was only slight, but it was enough for the two of them to dive to opposite sides of the warehouse, out of harm's way for a few seconds.  
  
"Stop them!" the Fantom called out to his soldiers.  
  
Glancing ahead, Huck saw five of the soldiers had already managed to get in front of him. With no time to grab anything more effective, he whipped out his Colts and began firing at the soldiers in front of them.  
  
With an almost detached attitude, Huck watched as the soldiers fell down in front of him. He had reached a point in his life where he was almost immune to the suffering he might cause to other people by killing his opponents; it was a simple case of shoot your opponent before he shot you these days. He just tried to make it clean and quick.  
  
As the fifth and final soldier fell to the ground, Huck noted with a certain satisfaction that he'd hit them all in the head, and always in one shot. He wouldn't deny that Tom was the better of the two of them when it came to close quarters, but somehow Huck had always managed to be the better shot.  
  
And speaking of Tom...  
  
Glancing to the other side of the warehouse, Huck noted that his friend was dealing with six soldiers, and currently only four of them were dead. The other two had been hit, but they'd been wearing that armour that the Fantom was making standard issue for his followers, and he'd only briefly stunned them.  
  
Getting in close enough to fight them, Sawyer stopped firing his Winchester (Sensible enough, since Huck was fairly sure he'd heard it click), and began to use it as a more basic weapon, hitting the first soldier he encountered in the head before he could strike back. The second soldier was a bit more capable, and managed to land a couple of punches on the American, but Tom simply kicked the guy in between the legs, and he was down in a matter of seconds.  
  
Glancing over at Huck, Sawyer raised a quizzical eyebrow. Huck, guessing what his friend wanted to know, raised five fingers. Tom nodded; that left them five remaining soldiers, along with the Fantom himself.  
  
I can do this, Huck thought to himself, as he rapidly began to reload his Colts, hiding behind a pile of abandoned crates. On the other side of the warehouse, Tom had already strapped his Winchester onto his back and had pulled out his pistols, currently up against the wall in case someone came looking for him.  
  
Just as Huck had finished putting the last bullet into his Colt, something fired at the ground right beside him. The bullets tore through the floor, destroying the wood that made it in a few seconds. It may have been strong wood at the time of its construction, but a combination of time and the water beneath had weakened it greatly.  
  
Offering up a silent prayer to whatever god there was as thanks for his escape, Huck spun around the crates, leapt over the hole in the ground, and fired two shots at where he thought the man who'd shot him was standing. It paid off; the guy was standing there, and the first shot completely floored him. No sooner had the guy fallen, however, then the remaining four soldiers popped up from around Huck, their rifles pointing directly at his head.  
  
Huck gulped. "A little help here, Tom," he whispered, his fingers tensing over his gun's triggers.  
  
No sooner had the words passed his mouth than Sawyer was charging out from the side of the warehouse, his pistols blazing as he targeted the soldiers around Huck. Each bullet managed to strike one of the soldiers, and, by the time his guns clicked on empty, they were all down.  
  
All except the Fantom.  
  
At that thought, Huck spun around, drawing his Colts and pointing them in the direction where the Fantom had last been seen. There was nothing there. Groaning a little, Huck briefly slipped his pistols back into their holsters, pulled out his Winchester, and tossed it over to Sawyer.  
  
Sawyer caught it and nodded his thanks, although he knew it was unnecessary; Huck knew he'd need a weapon, and the Winchester was the best thing they had. He'd just feel more comfortable if his friend held it.  
  
Looking in front of them, the two agents saw the Fantom standing in one corner of the warehouse, his arms spread out in a combat stance.  
  
He grinned a little at them under his mask. "A valiant effort," he said, smiling at the Americans. Then his face hardened. "But at least one of you shall not survive it."  
  
Huck grinned a little as he walked towards the Fantom, leaving Sawyer standing behind him. Sliding the hammers back on his pistols, he aimed them at the Fantom's heart and mouth. He would have preferred the head, but he had no idea how hard the mask was, and didn't want to chance it.  
  
"That's a bit presumptuous, isn't it?" he asked, as his fingers closed over the triggers. "After all, we're the ones who're pointing guns at you."  
  
The Fantom smiled. "Really?"  
  
And he charged at Huck.  
  
The force of the attack knocked Huck right onto the ground, flat on his back, his pistols flying out of his hands almost at once. Looking to his left, he saw one pistol lying on the ground. Rolling to his left and onto his front, he grabbed the gun, began to stand up...  
  
And then got shot in the side of the head. ~~~~~  
  
Huck touched the scar on his face gingerly. "It hurt like hell, Tom. You know that?" He sighed. "And believe me, matters weren't helped when I was dragged into the freezing cold water immediately afterwards."  
  
His expression of sadness vanished, to be replaced by one of anger. "But that wasn't the worst part, Tom. The worst part, for me, was knowing that YOU fired the shot."  
  
Sawyer stared at Huck in shock. "W-what?" he asked, horrified that his old friend even thought he was capable of such an act. "I never did that! It was the Fantom..."  
  
"Please!" Huck said, spitting at a rock near Sawyer's head. "Don't insult me with obvious lies! The Fantom didn't have a gun on him as far as I could see, and even if he'd had one hidden, there's no way it could have been powerful enough at that size to do this!" He indicated his scar, and glared at Sawyer. "Only your Winchester- MY Winchester- could have done that."  
  
Sawyer groaned. "Huck, we both knew that the Fantom had several inventors working for him. How come it never occurred to you that they'd made him a gun that had all the force of a Winchester but in the size of a Colt?"  
  
Huck grinned, as he crouched down to stare at Sawyer. "Because he didn't," he said, smirking at his former friend. "Preach your innocence until the cows come home, Tom, but I know it was you who shot me." He reached behind his coat, and pulled out a small pistol. "Now I intend to return the favour."  
  
Sawyer gulped as Huck levelled the pistol until it was pointing right between his eyes. He was in definite trouble. Silently, he offered up a prayer for the future that Terry was able to find some way for Mina to have his kids...  
  
Just then, a massive thud sounded throughout the cave, followed by a loud roar. Startled, Huck looked back at one of his nearby soldiers. "What was that?" he called out to the man. The soldier shrugged.  
  
Huck groaned. "Well, go and find out!" he cried at the man. "Take some men with you; at least ten of you should be able to handle anything in this area along with the others I've got stationed out there!"  
  
"Does that include my friends?" Sawyer asked casually, as some soldiers began to run in the direction of the roar.  
  
"What?" Huck asked, glancing back at the spy as around five or six soldiers began to run towards the source of the roar. "What do you mean?"  
  
"That roar, my dear Huckleberry," Sawyer said, starting to enjoy himself despite the constant pain in his side from his earlier bullet wounds, "was the roar of one of the more ferocious of my teammates, a certain Edward Hyde." He grinned at his former partner smugly. "And, where Hyde goes, the League is sure to follow. You are in serious trouble now, Huck."  
  
"Don't make me laugh!" Huck replied angrily. "I have an army down here! Your 'league' only has six members in it without you! They can't possibly win!"  
  
Sawyer sighed. "Huck, you were never one to underestimate your opponents before this. It's tragic to see you've fallen apart in that regard."  
  
Huck struck Sawyer in the jaw, so hard that Sawyer could have sworn he saw a tooth come out of his mouth.  
  
"You'll pay for that," Huck whispered.  
  
Sawyer's blood dripping onto his shirt from his lip, looked up at Huck, and spat the blood onto Huck's chest.  
  
"Bring it on."  
  
*****  
  
"Come on, you stupid bastards!" Hyde roared, as he struck at the soldiers gathered around him again and again, always unable to knock back more than a couple at a time. The soldiers had deliberately positioned themselves higher up on the rock-face of the caves; almost out of range of Hyde's punches, but able to shoot him with their pistols. Unfortunately for them, Hyde's skin was so hard that all this achieved was making Hyde angrier.  
  
Around him, the other League members were doing their best, but these soldiers were far more intelligent than they looked; they'd deliberately targeted the unarmed League members first, and were currently overwhelming them by sheer weight of numbers. Mina and Terry were doing fairly well, but they were unable to do a decent amount of damage with everyone being so close to them, and Hartdegen, Nemo, Becky, and Skinner (Who had been unable to ditch his coat) were just doing their best against the remaining few.  
  
Actually getting to the caves had been easy enough; not only had Skinner just been to them (Although Terry had needed to lend Skinner his coat until he got his old one back from the Shark), but there was also Becky's expert knowledge of the area to take into account. However, upon arriving at the caves, they had stumbled across a sentry, whom Hyde had chased after when he'd tried to escape. Hyde's roars had brought the Shark's whole forces down on top of them, and now they couldn't get into the caves.  
  
Right now, their main objective was to clear a path for at least one of them to get in and help Sawyer.  
  
*****  
  
"Bloody hell!" Skinner yelled, as he ducked and weaved through the mass of soldiers around him, trying to take at least one of the soldiers down without getting shot. Assuming he'd be able to shed his coat before anyone found them, he hadn't bothered to grab a weapon, and was now finding him in ht e worst position of the entire League; hell, even that Becky woman had a couple of guns!  
  
As it was, the only reason nobody had killed him yet was because he had partly ducked so that he was at about waist level to everyone else. The practical upshot of this was that, due to his running so fast that the tails of his coat were flying out behind him, it was difficult for people to decide where to shoot at him.  
  
Just then, a thought occurred to him. Ducking down even lower, he stuck out his arms and charged towards the nearby soldiers, hitting them directly in the backs of their legs. Barely managing to get out of the way before they fell on him, he kept on going forwards, praying to find another member of the League soon.  
  
He did.  
  
It was Hartdegen.  
  
The man in question had somehow ended up back-to-back with Becky Thatcher, the two of them brandishing their pistols at the surrounding soldiers in a very effective manner. However, Skinner knew that this couldn't last for long; right now, their leader needed their help, and these two were the best candidates to give it.  
  
"Hey, Alex!" he called out, desperately. "This way! Now!"  
  
The former teacher glanced in the direction of the voice, smiling in relief when he saw the crouching form of Skinner's coat.  
  
"Right!" he said, grabbed Becky by the arm and diving down the corridor Skinner had just cleared for them.  
  
Skinner looked at the two of them as they raced towards the cave entrance, now blissfully devoid of any soldiers. Briefly, his gaze flicked down to Becky's rear, but he turned away as soon as he caught himself staring; this was NOT the time to go lusting after his boss's ex.  
  
Turning back to the remaining soldiers, who now had all their guns levelled at him, Skinner decided that it was now the time to run.  
  
So he did.  
  
Right in the general direction of Terry and Hyde. If they couldn't help him, he was dead meat already.  
  
*****  
  
"Tell me, do you have a definite plan right now?" Becky yelled at Hartdegen, as they began pounding through the caves. Glancing down towards the ground, Hartdegen gratefully noted that, from what he could see of Becky's feet, they were wearing what seemed to be some of Skinner's old shoes; they were a couple of sizes too big, but they'd do the job.  
  
"Well, not really," he said, looking back up at her as the two of them ran around a stalagmite. "But I'm fairly sure I saw a light in this direction, so it seems as good a place as- SAWYER!" he cried out in delight, spotting the spy in question up ahead of him.  
  
"TOM!" Becky grinned, her face lightly up at the sight of the young man. Hartdegen briefly wondered why she was so happy to see Sawyer (As he recalled, the two of them had been extremely hard on each other when the Nautilus had docked) but decided he'd just leave it alone. After all, it wasn't his business.  
  
However, as the two of them got closer to Sawyer, they saw he wasn't looking as good as they'd thought. He was in a small chamber in the side of the cave, right opposite the door to said chamber, his arms held up to the wall by chains. His mouth was bleeding, and Hartdegen was fairly sure he could see blood on Sawyer's right side. However, he noticed the distinct rising and falling of the chest that showed the young American was still breathing so he still had a chance.  
  
"Hold on, Tom!" Hartdegen yelled, as he and Becky drew ever closer to the chamber. "We'll get you out of there!"  
  
"No," a voice said simply.  
  
Instantly, the rest of the cave was lit up by several gas lamps. The new illumination revealed that Hartdegen and Becky were now surrounded by several of the Shark's soldiers, at least sixteen overall, each one wielding two deadly-looking pistols.  
  
A man walked out from the chamber where Sawyer was hanging, smiling at them in a very unpleasant manner. He was around Hartdegen's height, with dirty brown hair hanging down at the back of his head. He was dressed in a black suit and cloak, the cloak having a slight trace of light grey fur with black spots around its edge, and reached down so far that a little bit of it was dragging along the ground.  
  
However, his face was the really noticeable thing about him. Although the right half was normal, the left half was disfigured by a scar that appeared to have torn out the left eye and damaged the man's mouth and left shoulder. The unscarred side of the man's face revealed him to be around Sawyer's age, maybe a little older, with a brown eye and a tan.  
  
"Who are you?" Hartdegen asked, just as he heard Becky give a horrified gasp.  
  
He glanced over to her. "What's wrong?"  
  
"It's... it's Huck..." Becky gasped unable to believe her own eyes. "But... but he's... he's..."  
  
"Dead?" the man called Huck asked, grinning at them both. "I know you are, but what am I?"  
  
He turned around to his guards. "Kill them."  
  
The guards raised their weapons.  
  
Shit, Hartdegen thought to himself. 


	6. Joseph Seeqe

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
funyun: Your guess is right; Huck is stark raving bonkers. Then again, after being shot in the head, wouldn't you be a little screwed up?  
  
Niani: Here it is, and it has a twist you probably WEREN'T expecting  
  
Resurrection  
  
Becky looked over at Huck, with a combination of anger and pain in her eyes.  
  
"Why, Huck?" she asked, sounding to Hartdegen like she was about to cry, although he noted that she was still holding on to her pistols in a steady manner that betrayed no emotion at all. "Why are you doing this? Tom was your friend... your best friend all the way through childhood. This isn't like you..."  
  
"It's the way I am now, Becky," Huck said, spitting out her name like it was a curse. "Thank Tom for that."  
  
"Pardon?" Hartdegen asked, still pointing one gun at the soldiers. He'd slipped the other one back into its holster when Becky started talking, and his left hand was now in his pocket. However, none of the soldiers were firing; evidently, they were waiting for their leader to give the order. "What did he do?"  
  
"He gave me this," Huck said, tapping the scar on his face. "Assuming you get out of this alive, ask him about it. See if you can condone his reasons for shooting his partner in cold blood."  
  
"He wouldn't do that," Becky stated simply.  
  
Huck sighed. "Shows you what YOU know about the man you love," he said.  
  
"It also shows what you know about him," Hartdegen said, as his hand closed on something in his pocket. "You didn't even take into account that he may have a back-up plan for a situation like this."  
  
"Pardon?" Huck asked. "What 'back-up plan' are you talking about?"  
  
"This!" Hartdegen replied, as he pulled something from his pocket.  
  
It was a small glass phial, apparently perfectly unremarkable save for its smallness; it looked like you could down its contents in one swallow. However, Becky recognised it instantly.  
  
It was the phial that Doctor Jekyll had drunk before he turned into that... beast... that called itself Edward Hyde.  
  
*****  
  
Hartdegen moved his hand over the cork of the bottle and pulled it off. He raised it to his lips, and looked over at the man called Huck with a threatening glare in his eyes.  
  
"I assume you've done some research on us, 'Huck'," he said, the bottle hovering over his lips in an almost threatening manner. "If you haven't then I'll fill you in; this phial contains the serum that transforms Doctor Jekyll into Edward Hyde, the massive creature that could conceivably tear right through everyone in this room in a matter of seconds, and is currently destroying your soldiers outside this cave." Then his face hardened. "And if I drink it, that's what I'll become."  
  
He tilted the bottle slightly in his hand; any further, and he'd swallow it. "Let Agent Sawyer go, or I'll drink this. Whatever the result is, I'm sure you won't want to see it." Then he raised one eyebrow as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Come to that, I don't want to see the results myself!"  
  
"Then you won't drink it," Huck said, smirking in a very self-confident manner. "Bluff all you want, but if you're that scared of the results of drinking that formula, you won't do anything with it."  
  
"There's only one way everyone can be sure of that," Hartdegen stated simply. "Let Sawyer go, and I won't drink this."  
  
"I won't do that," Huck replied, smirking.  
  
Hartdegen groaned. "This is all your fault," he said simply.  
  
Then he swallowed the contents of the bottle.  
  
*****  
  
As soon as the contents of the phial had fallen down Hartdegen's throat, he dropped the bottle and screamed in pain, as his body started to bulge all over. One eyebrow burst out over his head, followed by his right arm and some random muscles all along his chest, and then he started shaking and twisting...  
  
A few seconds later, before anyone had managed to do anything, a new creature was standing in Hartdegen's place. This new creature looked like Edward Hyde in the vital parts- the height, the muscles, the beast-like expression of rage on his face- but in the finer points, he wasn't quite the same.  
  
This creature had Hyde's high head, but it possessed longer hair, reaching down to around its neck (The hair looked like it was caked with dirt), and actually had a small goatee. The face was slightly wider than Hyde, and the fingers, although still as fat as Hyde's, gave the impression of being more delicate than his. His skin was darker than Hyde's had ever been, and he had less veins popping out on his arms than Hyde did.  
  
Panting slightly, the creature stretched, grinned, and turned to face Huck, who was just staring at the creature like he'd been lobotomised.  
  
"Thanks," he said simply. "You have no idea how good it feels to be my own person for a change."  
  
"H....Hartdegen?" Becky asked, walking towards the creature. It turned around to face Becky, and groaned.  
  
"Of course not," the creature grunted, smiling at Becky. "Call me Joseph Seeqe, if you're going to call me anything." Then he turned back to the soldiers. "Now, get behind me and cover my back. These bastards are going down."  
  
(A.N. Just to clarify, 'Seeqe' is meant to be pronounced 'Seek'- as in, 'Hide and Seek'. However, if you can come up with a better way of spelling it with the same pronunciation, feel free to let me know)  
  
*****  
  
Becky nodded, and spun around behind Seeqe, pointing her pistols at the soldiers. She noticed them staring at Seeqe with the same stupid expression that had been on Huck's face. Then again, Becky had to admit it would come as a shock to anyone who hadn't seen anything like Hyde before; she'd SEEN Doctor Jekyll transform, and even she was a little shaken.  
  
Sliding back the hammers on her pistols, she raised them to around her eye level and aimed at the soldier's heads.  
  
These were living men...  
  
A part of her protested at what she was about to do. Unlike Huck and Tom, she had never held a weapon in her hands before now, and when she'd been fighting with the League, it had strictly been for survival, with little time to see who she was shooting at. Could she really kill a man in cold blood?  
  
She looked back at where Tom hung from the wall, bleeding from his mouth and side.  
  
The rest was easy.  
  
She fired.  
  
Two of the men dropped.  
  
Instantly, the remaining soldiers snapped out of their daze and began to fire their guns. Just before the bullets could strike Becky, she found herself lifted right off her feet by a massive arm that took all the bullets without even bleeding.  
  
"Seeqe?" she asked, looking back at the man mountain, who was staring at her with a concerned expression on its- no, his- face. "Are you alright?"  
  
"I'm fine," Seeqe grunted, as he placed her on the ground and covered her with his body, shielding her from the flying bullets. "My body's basically bulletproof, and even if anything does hurt me, I can recover fairly quickly. Good shot, by the way; Sawyer would be proud."  
  
Becky looked over nervously at where she'd seen the young agent earlier. "If he's still breathing, I hope you're right," she said, as she pulled out a couple of extra bullets and slid them into her guns; she'd probably need them at this rate.  
  
"He's breathing," Seeqe assured her. "I just hope we get the chance to show these bastards what we're made of soon..." he added, growling under his breath.  
  
Several loud clicks sounded from around them.  
  
Seeqe grinned. "They're out of bullets," he said, smiling at Becky. "When I say go, go. Go!"  
  
And he leapt up onto his feet and charged at the nearest group of soldiers. As Becky got to her feet, Seeqe threw two soldiers into the wall of the cavern, and then grabbed a third by the arms and yanked on both of them. As the man fell to the ground, screaming in agony, Becky turned around to face the soldiers behind her, unwilling to witness Seeqe's murders.  
  
As the other soldiers attempted to reload their guns, Becky launched off four bullets at them, striking four soldiers in various different places. Two of them died instantly, the third one fell to the ground with a fatal wound near his heart, and the fourth found himself with a bullet lodged in his upper right arm.  
  
Leaving him to shake in pain, Becky spun around to see how Seeqe was coping. She noted, partly with relief and partly with revulsion, that Seeqe had taken out around six of the soldiers, who were currently lying on the ground in various disgusting stages of death and mutilation. One soldier appeared to have been strangled with his own intestines, another was lacking both arms, a third and fourth were bleeding profusely from their mouths, apparently deprived of their tongues and with nasty scratches around their throats, and the fifth and sixth appeared to have been beaten into bloody pulps.  
  
Becky almost threw up as Seeqe finished with a seventh man, in a manner that consisted of twisting the soldier's head in one direction and his body in another. Then, just as he started to turn around to face the remaining three, Becky made her decision.  
  
She raised her guns and fired.  
  
Instantly, two of the remaining soldiers dropped like a pair of stones. Before Seeqe had fully processed what had just happened, Becky had fired two more bullets, and the final soldier dropped dead.  
  
Becky walked over to the body, and spat on it.  
  
"That was for Tom," she said simply, before glancing back at Seeqe, who was staring at her with a stunned expression on his face.  
  
"You... you shot them?" he asked, sounding like he was slightly angry at her for doing that.  
  
Becky stared Seeqe in the face, trying to quieten the urge to run away from this monster, screaming in terror. Whatever else he may have been, Seeqe was still Alex Hartdegen underneath all his muscles. She had to remember that.  
  
He was on her side.  
  
If only he didn't take so much pleasure in killing people for looking at him the wrong way.  
  
"Yes," she replied, simply. "I thought you'd done enough damage to their friends already. No man should die like that, Seeqe, no matter what he's done. And I'll ask you not to be that harsh again."  
  
"And what makes you think you can order me about like a dog?!" Seeqe asked, raising one hand like he was going to strike her. "Do you realise I could kill you without a second thought?"  
  
Becky just stared at Seeqe. Maybe she could never have Tom again, but she could at least try to be his kind of woman in situations like this.  
  
And Mina Harker wouldn't flinch when facing this... creature.  
  
Becky may not be a vampire, but she wouldn't let that deter her from facing her fear.  
  
"You could, but you won't," she replied bluntly. "Because, deep down, you are still Alexander Hartdegen, a physics teacher from New York with some interesting theories about time travel. And he would never kill a friend, no matter what he'd become or what they'd done."  
  
Seeqe kept his hand held back for a couple of seconds. Then he lowered it.  
  
"True enough, I suppose," he said, growling a little. Then he suddenly glanced behind him, and groaned. "Dammit! That Huck bastard's scarpered!"  
  
"What?" Becky asked, terror gripping her heart. Huck was gone? "Any ideas where?" she asked Seeqe, praying Huck wasn't too far away.  
  
Seeqe sniffed a little, and then pointed down a small path to the side of the cavern. "I can smell him. He's down there."  
  
Becky sighed. She knew where that hole led; to a small underground stream that led out to the sea. Huck might be able to swim out of the cave from there and escape, but he'd need to get rid of his cloak and some parts of his suit, which would give her time to catch up with him.  
  
"I'll take Huck," she said, glancing up at Seeqe. "You get Tom out of here; he needs your help right now." She glanced over at the cave where the man she loved was hanging. He looked like he was barely conscious; he probably hadn't even registered that he'd been saved.  
  
"Right," Seeqe said, as Becky turned away and began to run down the path and after Huck. Whatever had happened to him, she had to stop Huck before he hurt anyone else.  
  
He needed help.  
  
Whatever it took, she'd see that he got it.  
  
*****  
  
"Uuuuhhhh..." Sawyer said, groaning a little as he felt something tug on his arm. What was happening to him now? Huck taking him away for more torture?  
  
If so, he sent up a brief prayer to Mina, to remember how much he loved her.  
  
"I'm sorry..." he gasped, coughing a little as he spoke.  
  
"For what?" a rough voice asked from beside Sawyer. It sounded to Sawyer almost like Hyde's voice, but it had a slight touch of an American accent to it. Glancing to his right, Sawyer realised what had spoken; it was a massive creature, almost exactly like Hyde, but certain things were different. The hair was longer, the face wider, there was a small goatee on the chin...  
  
Inspiration struck Sawyer.  
  
"H-hartdegen?" he asked, half-hoping he was wrong.  
  
"Well, that's generally who I am when I'm not like this," the creature replied. Sawyer couldn't bring himself to call it Hartdegen; after seeing what Hyde was capable of, he'd long ago stopped thinking of him and Jekyll as anything other than separate people.  
  
Perhaps sensing the American's discomfort, the creature smiled a little. Of course, him being another Hyde, it seemed more like he was going to attack Tom rather than comfort him, but the gesture was kind enough.  
  
"Call me Joseph Seeqe," he said, before turning back to the chain that held up Sawyer's left hand and yanking it off the wall. "Becky's after that Huck character, but right now I think we should give the League a little bit of help before we go after her. You?"  
  
Sawyer groaned a little, as he went over his options. Becky could need his help, but right now he wouldn't be doing anyone any good by following her. Plus, Sawyer thought sadly, as he glanced at a hole in the side of the cave, he could barely walk by himself right now, and the hole looked too small for Seeqe to go in. They'd just have to leave Becky to her own devices and get back to the rest of the League.  
  
"The League," he said to Seeqe. "C'mon, they've gotta be waiting for us."  
  
*****  
  
"Dammit!" Skinner yelped, as a bullet skimmed his shoulder as he tackled a soldier to the ground. He was starting to get sick of this; they'd been fighting for ages, and these bastards seemed very unwilling to quit. Their close proximity to the League members was preventing Mina and Terry from really hit anyone hard enough to do much damage, and Hyde was still desperately trying to reach the soldiers on the cliff-side. Nemo was still taking on at least two soldiers at a time by himself, and Skinner was still trying his old method of ducking down and ramming.  
  
Suddenly, the thief noticed something lying on the ground beside the soldier he'd just knocked out.  
  
The soldier's gun.  
  
He could have kicked himself. He'd been so busy complaining to himself about not having a weapon on him that he'd forgotten to pay any attention to the idea of grabbing a gun from the downed soldiers.  
  
What kind of an idiot am I? Skinner thought to himself, as he reached over and grabbed the gun. Spinning around, he aimed the gun at a nearby soldier, who was currently charging towards Nemo, and fired.  
  
The soldier dropped.  
  
Excellent! Skinner thought to himself, as he aimed the gun at some of the other soldiers and began to fire. Four soldiers fell at once, but just as Skinner was starting to get into the mood to take them out, the gun clicked on empty.  
  
"Shit," he whispered, as the soldiers looked up in his direction. The rest of the League were still occupied, and right now, he had about five soldiers aiming their guns at him, and nowhere to dive to.  
  
If this is the end, Skinner thought to himself, as he dropped the gun and shrugged his coat off, I'm going out the way I came in...  
  
Kicking and screaming.  
  
He charged forwards, desperate to stop at least one soldier before they could get off a shot.  
  
But, as they raised their guns, he knew he couldn't pull it off. He may be invisible right now, but they could still guess where he was, and that might be enough.  
  
They began to pull the triggers...  
  
And suddenly, something large and muscular charged into them from the side, knocking them down like ninepins.  
  
Skinner grinned. Only one creature on earth was that big and fast.  
  
"Edward, old boy!" he said, turning to face the form. "Thanks for-" and he stopped, puzzled.  
  
It wasn't Hyde. It LOOKED like him, but there were a couple of extras, such as the head being wider and there being less veins visible along the arms than Skinner remembered.  
  
The form looked back, and Skinner noted that it had the half comatose form of Tom Sawyer in its arms.  
  
Only one person could have picked up Sawyer and not killed him, as far as Skinner knew.  
  
He looked at the creature with a combination of horror and awe. "H- hartdegen?" he asked, a slight stammer in his voice.  
  
"Not quite," Sawyer smiled from the Hartdegen-Hyde's arms, looking in rather bad shape. "Call him... Joseph Seeqe... Skinner."  
  
"Seeqe?" Skinner asked, looking at the massive creature.  
  
Seeqe nodded, and passed Sawyer in Skinner's general direction. "Take him," he said simply, before he glanced over towards where the rest of the League were. They were so wrapped up in their battles that they hadn't even noticed Seeqe and Sawyer come charging in. "I'll help them handle this."  
  
Skinner scooped the battered American agent up in his arms, before looking up at Seeqe.  
  
"How was it?" he asked, as the large bulk that used to be a simple teacher tensed up to charge.  
  
Seeqe looked down at Skinner, a puzzled expression on his face at first, but it brightened as inspiration dawned.  
  
"Sore," he said, in answer to Skinner's question. Then he grinned. "But remarkably satisfying at the same time." He shrugged a little as he turned back to the soldiers. "Kind of like sex, in that regard; sore, but worth it."  
  
He charged before Skinner could even get another word in edgeways.  
  
The invisible thief glanced down at his charge. Sawyer definitely didn't look too healthy; they'd need to give him a blood transplant or something when they got back to the Nautilus.  
  
However, no sooner had that thought crossed Skinner's mind, then he heard a wild roaring up in front of him. Looking up, he watched as Seeqe tore through the Shark's soldiers like they were a bunch of pins, knocking several of them down with only a few well-placed blows. Apparently, the other League members didn't realize that Sawyer was now safe, nor who had taken out the soldiers; Skinner assumed they thought it was Hyde, who had finally had the bright idea of jumping up at the soldiers while punching them. Only five of them were still standing, and they looked like they'd be going down fairly quickly at this rate.  
  
Still, whether or not it was a different League member who'd saved them, it wasn't going to stop the rest from having fun. With the numbers around them having dropped to a more manageable number, Terry, Nemo and Mina were dealing out death to everyone near them. In roomier conditions, the soldiers didn't even have a prayer; they were dead in a few seconds.  
  
*****  
  
Mina took the last one down herself, stabbing him in the heart with one of her daggers.  
  
"That was for hurting Tom," she said, as the soldier began to crumple onto the ground. "Nobody does that while I live."  
  
"That's... good to know..." a voice said from behind her. Mina glanced around, and saw her lover, hanging onto something that couldn't be seen; evidently, Skinner had picked him up. However, he didn't seem to be in good shape; there were some ugly red patches on the right side of his chest, and his mouth was leaking blood.  
  
"Oh my god..." she said, running over to him and taking him up in her arms, sparing a brief smile for Skinner as thanks. This couldn't be happening... he couldn't die on her, not now...  
  
"It looks... worse than it... is," Sawyer gasped, patting her on the back. "Just a couple... of ribs hurt,... I think."  
  
Mina sighed with relief as she loosened her grip on Sawyer. He grinned at her, trying to reassure her he was all right. "I'd... kiss you, but... well, the blood... and all," he said, shrugging.  
  
Mina smiled at that. Trust Tom to find the humour in a situation like this. "They'll be time for that later," she assured him. "Right now, we just have to get everyone together and get you back to the Nautilus."  
  
****  
  
"Talking of gathering us all together, how did you get out of the cave?" Nemo asked, as he, Hyde and Terry joined the three of them, Skinner having shrugged his coat back on by this point. The three of them were looking at Sawyer in a concerned manner, but in Hyde's case he looked like he was almost analysing Sawyer.  
  
"Him," Sawyer replied, indicating something behind them. The League looked around...  
  
And their jaws dropped as they saw Joseph Seeqe. Mina had been too busy focusing on Sawyer to spot him earlier, and the others had been distracted by the battle and the dazed agent to spot him earlier.  
  
"Hi," Seeqe said, waving a little at the League in a manner that was the most Hartdegen-like expression they'd seen on him yet. "Name's Joseph Seeqe; I'm the result of Plan J when used on Hartdegen. To answer any questions you may have, Skinner cleared a path for Hartdegen and Becky to get into the cave, and they found Tom being held captive by the criminal called 'the Shark' and some of his gang. Hartdegen drank his serum to fight them off, Becky and I took them out, and she went after the Shark while I got Sawyer out." He shrugged. "Hey, she can handle herself."  
  
*****  
  
"I did," a voice said from behind them. Glancing around, the League saw Becky standing at the cave's entrance, covered in dirt and with a small scratch on her hand. "Unfortunately, Huck managed to get out of the cave via a back entrance. He had a boat waiting for him, and I had to come back." Her expression changed to one of concern as she saw Sawyer lying in Mina's arms. "How is he?"  
  
"Weak, but he'll live, according to Henry," Hyde grunted. "We should get him back to the Nautilus for a check-up; some people," and here he glanced harshly at Becky, "have some explaining to do about the Shark."  
  
Becky nodded. The League started to walk back towards town, Mina passing Sawyer over to Seeqe while she walked; after all, the man-mountain was one of the best candidates, given that he'd done it already. However, as Becky tagged along behind the League, she found herself unable to get one idea out of her head.  
  
Why did Huck blame Tom for his injury? 


	7. Aftermath

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
LotRseer3350: Glad you liked Seeqe; he'll be appearing a bit more in the future, but only in the really BIG problems...  
  
Clez: Good thing; I was a bit stuck for something that went well with 'Hartdegen', so I just chose Seeqe as a compromise.  
  
Niani: Who knows? Maybe people just think being invisible is enough torture for him. Plus, it'd be a bit difficult to torture someone when you can't see the person in question...  
  
funyun: The analysis was Hyde letting Jekyll work out how badly Sawyer was injured. As to the love triangle suggestion, well... You'll have to wait and see.  
  
Sean Malloy-1: I have got a plan to have the League visit this time, but that's not going to be for a while; I need to introduce a couple of other League members for this League, and the future League has to go through a couple of other missions. But don't worry; I'll get round to it eventually. However, if you like the idea of the League getting future help, check out my story 'Worlds at War'- it's not much, but the League do get Hartdegen to go into the future and pick up a weapon they need.  
  
Resurrection  
  
Two hours later, the League all sat outside the Nautilus's medical bay, waiting for news about the wounded American.  
  
After they'd arrived back at the Nautilus, Hyde and Seeqe had reverted back into Jekyll and Hartdegen, both managing to quickly get dressed before rejoining the League. Jekyll had then examined Sawyer's injuries, and confirmed Hyde's earlier diagnosis; Sawyer's only physical injuries were a couple of bruised ribs, although he was suffering from a loss of blood as well. Both Nemo and Skinner had volunteered to donate theirs, although Jekyll had only taken Nemo's; he wasn't sure what the effects would be of Sawyer having the blood of an invisible man running through his veins, but he wasn't exactly eager to find out.  
  
The League had then left Jekyll alone to remove Sawyer's bullets and get his ribs into a position where they'd be able to heal properly. The only member who'd stayed behind was Terry; due to his 'detailed files on human anatomy', he was the only other League member who could help Jekyll perform major surgery without the doctor needing to tell him what to do.  
  
Right now, the three of them had been in the medical bay for almost an hour, and the rest of the League, along with Becky, were starting to get stiff from waiting around. They knew they should probably just go to bed, but they couldn't. For their own different reasons, each of them had to know for sure that Tom Sawyer would be all right.  
  
For Mina and Becky, the reason was the same; Tom Sawyer was the man they loved, and they weren't going to leave until they had some news of his well- being, one way or the other.  
  
In Skinner's case, he partly felt responsible for Sawyer's state- after all, if he'd been faster the American probably wouldn't have been shot-, and wanted to ensure that his slip-up hadn't led to the deaths of one of the few men he could actually call a friend these days.  
  
For Hartdegen, it was because he'd like to be assured that he hadn't turned into Seeqe for nothing. That hadn't been the most pleasant of experiences he'd ever had, no matter what Seeqe had told Skinner, and he didn't want that to have been for nothing.  
  
And for Nemo... well, it was his simple dedication to his friends. He was always concerned about the well-being of every one of his crew, and even though Sawyer was his unofficial superior, he saw no reason not to be as concerned about him as he would be about his crew.  
  
After they'd been waiting for a while, Mina turned her attention to Becky.  
  
"So, Miss Thatcher, would you care to enlighten us as to the identity of the Shark?" she said, looking curiously at the young woman.  
  
"What?" Becky asked, slightly surprised at that comment. "Wh-what makes you think I know anything about him?"  
  
"The fact that you called him by name," Hartdegen said, looking over at her. "Coupled with everything you said to him before I turned into Seeqe, I think we're entitled to know exactly who the Shark -or 'Huck', as you called him- really is."  
  
Becky sighed. "Well, all right," she said, as she looked around at the remaining members of the League. "As I mentioned down in the cave, Tom and Huck were best friends all the way through childhood." She smiled a little at a fond memory. "You should have been there when the two of them and Joe Harper were thought to be dead and showed up for their own funeral; that was rich!"  
  
"Really?" Skinner said, cocking one invisible eyebrow at Becky. "What was that about?"  
  
Mina looked over at the invisible man with a piercing gaze in her eyes.  
  
Skinner gulped. "Shutting up now."  
  
Mina smiled and turned back to Becky.  
  
Becky continued. "Anyway, Tom, Huck and Joe always got up to those kind of pranks; some people called them 'the Troublesome Three' in certain circles." Then she stopped and sighed. "Then, after Joe died, it dropped to only two..."  
  
Mina remembered Tom mentioning that to her; according to him, Joe's death was the reason he and Becky had broken up. Not wanting to force Becky to dwell on that, she waved her hand to get the young woman to move on.  
  
Becky smiled in thanks. "Anyway, around that time the two of them were approached by a representative of the newly-formed American Secret Services; their high jinks were some of the more interesting pieces of information about this town, and it attracted the Government's attention. They had a few interesting missions, such as dealing with the occasional mad scientist, but never anything major." Then she sighed. "I never really heard any of this from Tom. He and I stopped talking after Joe's death, and pretty much all of this I found out from Huck. We were never... you know... romantically involved or anything," she said, looking around at the League to ensure they understood that. They nodded, and she continued; "but we were still good friends, and, well, Tom and I hadn't parted on good terms. The last time I heard from Huck, they were tracking down the Fantom, and, well, then I got a message from Tom saying that Huck was... was..." She lowered her head, and the final word came out in a sobbing choke. "Dead..."  
  
The League looked around at each other, each of them understanding the pain Becky was going through. After all, Allan's death was still a touchy subject among them even after several months had passed, and they'd only known him a few days. However, the fact that Becky had only recently nearly been killed by a friend that she had believed to be dead could also be the cause of her fragile emotional condition, which none of the League felt like interrupting.  
  
After Becky had stopped sobbing quite as loudly, Skinner broke the subject.  
  
"So," he said, trying to sound fairly casual, "stupid question, I know, but if Huck's dead, how come he was trying to kill us all a few hours ago?"  
  
Becky sobbed into her hand a little at that, and Mina looked over at Skinner with her eyes flashing red. Skinner gulped, and didn't say anything else.  
  
Just before the situation could get any more awkward, the door to the medical bay opened, and Jekyll and Terry walked out. Jekyll had taken off his jacket and waistcoat and had rolled up his sleeves, and Terry had, for a change, removed his coat and glasses. Their hands had some small bloodstains on them, but it didn't look like anything serious.  
  
"How is he?" Mina asked, looking up at the two of them.  
  
Jekyll smiled at her. "Nothing serious," he said reassuringly. "His ribs should heal in a couple of weeks, although I wouldn't recommend him going into action during that time. The blood transfusion took a while- I've never really tried that kind of operation before- but with Terry's help, I managed to make some progress. He'll be fine."  
  
Mina sighed in relief. "Thank you," she said, leaning in and kissing Jekyll on the cheek before running into the medical bay. The League knew she would have done the same for Terry, but as a machine it wouldn't have meant anything to him. They dashed in after Mina, Becky briefly stopping to pat Terry on the shoulder and whisper 'thank you' before joining the others.  
  
Looking at each other, Jekyll and Terry shrugged and walked in after them.

  
  
Once they were in the medical bay, the League noticed Sawyer almost at once. He was sitting up in a bed off to one side, with a large curtain draped around the area where the operation had been performed. He didn't exactly look like he was in excellent shape- there was still some dried blood on his lip and his chest, from what could be seen of it under his now- torn shirt, still had a couple of scars on it- but at least he wasn't bleeding anymore. He was currently reading one of the books he'd recently acquired from the Nautilus's library; 'A Study in Scarlet', by Doctor John Watson, and edited by his literary agent Arthur Conan Doyle.  
  
As the League entered, he looked up at them with a smile on his face.  
  
"Well, good to see you guys were waiting for me," he said, trying to sound casual, as he put the book down on his bedside table and smiled up at them. His voice still had a slight edge of pain in it, but other than that he appeared fine.  
  
Mina, who had sat through the entire operation with no idea what has happening to him, looking as still as a statue, just broke down. She gave a small sob, and then her arms were wrapped around Sawyer, her face buried into his shoulder as she cried.  
  
Uncertain what else to do, Sawyer just put his arms around Mina and hugged her.  
  
"Shhh..." he said, trying to sound soothing. He knew that telling Mina to do something like that was risking her anger, but he felt like it was appropriate. "It's okay, Mina... it's okay... I'm alive. We're all alive..." he said, as she pulled away and looked him in the eyes, her own eyes now slightly red. Not the usual red of vampirism, he noted, but the red of tears. He briefly felt flattered that he could get that kind of response from her, but then just went back to being concerned about her, and hugged her again.  
  
"I'm sorry," Mina whispered into his ear. "If I'd been there, maybe... maybe..."  
  
"It wasn't you," Sawyer replied, trying to console while the rest of the League just stood back and watched them. He briefly noticed Becky looking slightly annoyed, but dismissed it; that didn't make any sense to him. So he turned his attention back to Mina. "I don't blame you, Mina. Huck wanted me dead more than he wanted to target anyone else; he'd have gone after me even if the entire League had been with me." He pulled back from her, and looked her in the eyes. "I love you, Mina. Nothing you could do could stop that, and certainly not something that you didn't have any control over."  
  
Mina smiled. He may be young in some regards, but sometimes Mina felt like Tom was the immortal one in this relationship, rather than her. Leaning in, she gratefully kissed him, a tender, soft kiss that conveyed her sorrow more than any other kiss could have done. Becky looked almost furious, but Tom and Mina parted before anyone else could notice.

  
  
After the spy and the vampire had been staring into each other's eyes for a couple of minutes, Becky finally broke the silence.  
  
"Sorry to interrupt this tender moment," she said, sounding slightly sarcastic, "but, Tom, we need to focus on one point."  
  
"Namely?" Sawyer asked, looking over at Becky.  
  
"Why does... Huck... think you shot him?" Becky asked, sounding slightly scared. Could she possibly think that Huck had been telling the truth?  
  
Then again, Sawyer couldn't quite blame her; Huck had been fairly convincing when he'd been talking to him, and Sawyer had KNOWN what had really happened.  
  
"It's complicated, but I'll be brief," he said, sitting up and managing to look stronger than he felt himself. "It goes back to when Huck and I had apparently managed to trap the Fantom in an abandoned warehouse, when the two of us were put on assignment to stop him."  
  
"Too bad you blew it," Skinner shrugged.  
  
Sawyer looked over at him with an expression that only gave the smallest hint of how angry he was at that comment. Skinner gulped. "I mean... go on?" he said sheepishly.  
  
Sawyer nodded and continued. "Anyway, it turned out that the Fantom had hidden in this particular warehouse because it had sixteen of his men in it. Huck and I almost got killed, but we used our tried and tested attack strategy; attack plan beta."  
  
"Which consists of?" Hartdegen asked.  
  
"Basically, he and I split up and take on certain targets individually," Sawyer explained. Noticing the slightly suspicious expression on Becky's face, Sawyer glared at her. "Don't knock it, Becky; it was often the only thing that helped us get out alive. In most cases our opponents weren't really expecting us to put up any kind of fight when dealing with superior numbers."  
  
"Or maybe they just weren't expecting you to be so insane?" Becky asked, with a very icy tone in her voice.

  
  
"So, how'd that lead to Hucky getting shot?" Skinner asked, trying to calm the mood between the two Americans. Quite frankly, he wasn't sure whether to bang their heads together or book a wedding chapel; it was so OBVIOUS to him that Miss Thatcher still loved Sawyer! You couldn't hate someone as much as she seemed to hate Tom and not be trying to MAKE yourself hate the guy in question.  
  
Sawyer got back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, when Huck and I had taken out all of the soldiers, the Fantom tackled Huck and then kicked me in the stomach. I was only out of action for a few minutes, but, in that time, the Fantom..." He swallowed, and then almost appeared to force the words out. "...shot him in the head..." He briefly stared down for a while, before Mina slid her hand into his and gave it a small squeeze. Looking up at her, Sawyer smiled in thanks, and then continued to talk. "Anyway, I got back up in a few minutes, but in that time the Fantom managed to dump off Huck's body and then flee. He'd left the gun he'd used behind when he ran off; it was completely empty, so I assumed that Huck had been shot to pieces." He groaned. "Guess I was wrong. Apparently, since Huck never saw the Fantom's gun, he thinks I shot him with my Winchester for some reason." He groaned. "God, if only I'd looked for Huck's body..."  
  
"You could not have know, Agent Sawyer," Nemo replied. "The Fantom was a very dangerous man, as we all know; there was no guarantee that he would even have left Agent Finn in one piece."  
  
Sawyer sighed. "I know that, Nemo. But, seeing him like that, actually trying to kill me..." He groaned. "I'd... just like to be alone for a while."  
  
"A good idea," Jekyll said, speaking for the first time he'd entered the room. "Your wounds aren't anything serious, Tom, but if you have a rest soon, it should help you to recover."  
  
"Right," Mina said, glancing back at Sawyer with a smile on her face. "Stay safe, Tom. We'll be back tomorrow."  
  
"Right," Sawyer said, lying back on his bed as the other League members walked out of the medical bay. He had a bit of healing to do...

  
  
A couple of hours later, he was awakened by the sound of a door opening.  
  
His eyes wide open, he automatically reached for his gun, remembering only when he found nothing there that he was in the medical bay.  
  
Quickly, he went over who might be coming down here. It had to be because of him, since he was the only patient in the bay at present. Jekyll and Terry had patched him up fairly well, and neither of them suffered from a lack of confidence where medicine was concerned, so it couldn't be them. Nemo, Hartdegen, and Skinner were possibilities, but he couldn't think why they'd be dropping in on him late at night, especially after their recent fight. That only left Mina and Becky, and, based on the fact that Becky had no good reason to come down, that only left Mina.  
  
Admittedly, that possibility didn't make sense either. Sawyer wouldn't deny he and Mina had some issues regarding control at times, but there was no way she could get horny enough for him to come down when he was trying to get better. Whatever her other flaws were, control of her instincts wasn't one of them. After all, she could keep her longing for blood under control; she couldn't be having this much trouble with her hormones.  
  
So, who...?  
  
Just as he began to turn his head, Sawyer suddenly found himself with an unfamiliar tongue stuck down his throat. Fully awake now, he quickly looked to see if he could spot any distinguishing features about the person who was now kissing him, and noticed a strand of blond hair hanging down, and realised who this person was.  
  
Becky.  
  
Just as that thought crossed Tom's mind, Becky pulled away, looked him in the eyes, and said the four words he'd never expected to hear again.  
  
"Tom, I love you."


	8. Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Disclaimer: I own the idea of the Shark, but I don't own his real identity, nor do I own the League.  
  
Feedback: I'll still write this if I don't get any of it, but I would like it.  
  
Clez: I try my best.  
  
Sean Malloy-1: That idea has definite potential; I'll have to think about it...  
  
Resurrection  
  
"Wh...what?" Sawyer asked, unable to fully take in what had Becky had just told him.  
  
Becky grinned at him. "Tom, I love you. I always have, ever since that first day we kissed. I my have been only around eight years old, but I knew then that you were the only man I wanted to live with... the only man I ever loved." She looked at him, a pleading look in her eyes. "You love me as well, of course?"  
  
"Um..." Sawyer said, looking around the darkened medical bay and wishing he was anywhere but here. "Look, Becky, you're a great girl and all..."  
  
"Yes?" Becky asked, looking at him with a pleading expression in her eyes.  
  
"But... well... things are different now," Sawyer replied, looking sheepishly at Becky. "I'm not the boy you knew. I'm not the man you fell in love with. I've changed." He sighed. "I've seen people die. I've seen Huck actually try to kill me. I've witnessed horrors the likes of which you can't even imagine." He looked her in the face, the better to get across what he was about to say. "The greatest adventurer who has ever lived, and probably ever will live, gave his own life to save mine. His final words were a hope that this new century would be mine, as the old one was his. I can't fulfil that wish by staying here with you; I need to be out there, fighting the good fight."  
  
"Well... surely you can do that with me?" Becky asked, sitting down on the bed to look at him. "I'm not saying I'm as good as Mina in a fight, but I'm hardly a shrinking violet." She smiled a little at some pleasant memory. "Growing up with you, I've learnt a couple of tricks, and I picked up a couple of things in the last couple of hours. Tom, do you even know what I did when I went with the League to rescue you? I shot nine men for you. Isn't that worth anything?"  
  
Tom groaned. Why was it so difficult to tell a woman you didn't love her? He'd never found it this hard back when he'd rejected Amy Lawrence when he was younger...  
  
Then again, he hadn't been as keen on her as he had been on Becky. Maybe that was why things were so difficult.  
  
"Becky," he sighed, looking her in the eyes. "I have never said I don't love you. I do, and I appreciate everything you did to save my life. It's just... I'm already committed to a woman, and that woman is Mina."

* * *

Becky almost snapped at that comment, but she managed to refrain from doing anything about it; she doubted it would help her right now.  
  
"Tom, no offence intended on Mina, but, well, surely there's something I can give you that she can't?" Becky asked, placing her left hand on Tom's right, which he was using to hold himself up while talking. "You know, like... children?"  
  
Tom blinked. "What?" he asked, slightly confused.  
  
"I mean, as I recall, aren't vampires technically dead?" Becky asked, stroking Tom's arm in a slightly seductive, slightly begging manner. "Therefore, shouldn't Mina be incapable of having children herself?"

* * *

"You're wrong, Becky," Tom replied. He was starting to get a little worried now; Becky was going on about the possible lack of kids? Geez, she was _desperate_! "We've talked it over with the League, and they're of the opinion that the only reason that vampires can't have children is because they're making more vampires... well, the other way."  
  
"Pardon?" Becky asked, starting to look worried now. Tom hated doing this to her, but it was the only way.  
  
"You know, vampires make more vampires by biting them on the neck, and all that?" Tom explained. "Well, the League as a whole have a theory that vampires are only sterile because they're reproducing _that_ way instead of... well, the _human_ way." He shrugged sheepishly. "And, well, since we have no definite proof of either theory being correct, we're just going to assume that Mina _can_ reproduce the normal way until we can find out otherwise."  
  
Becky was looking like she was going to start begging in a few minutes, and Tom groaned a little. He remembered the time Mina had told him about her old friend, Lucy Westenra, and how she'd once received three proposals in one day, and found it hard to reject the two men she didn't love. He'd never quite understood the difficulty at the time; after all, she didn't love them the way they loved her. It was the best thing to do.  
  
Right now, he understood what her difficulty had been.  
  
"Look," he said, trying to sound comforting. "I'll always regard you as one of my closest friends, you have to be assured of that. It's just... I'm happy with Mina. We love each other." He sighed again. He seemed to be doing that a lot in this conversation. "Even if I ended up with you, I feel like I'd always be judging you against her. I don't want to end up in that situation, Becky." He opened his arms.  
  
She fell into them, sobbing into his shoulder slightly. Hugging her, Tom patted her on the back and kissed her neck.  
  
"Hey," he said, as she pulled back, her eyes turning slightly red already. "Don't feel too badly about things, OK? You captured my heart long before she appeared on the scene; it's just that she got a harder grip on it." He patted her comfortingly on the shoulder. "I do love you, Becky. I just love Mina more."  
  
Becky sighed a little as she looked at Tom. Then she gave him a sad little smile, and kissed him briefly on the forehead.  
  
"I understand," she said, blinking a little as though trying to force back some tears. "Well..." she said, getting up and turning towards the doorway she'd entered the bay by. "Get well soon."  
  
Then she walked out of the medical bay, leaving it as quiet and peaceful as the sleep from which she had awakened Tom.  
  
Lying back in the bed, Sawyer shut his eyes and was soon back in the sleep that which Becky had woken him up from.

* * *

It took the League a couple of days to tie up all the loose ends in the small town. After a quick talk, they decided that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell the police that they'd taken out the criminals themselves.  
  
Therefore, they'd claimed that they'd managed to track the criminals to their base of operations, only to find that they'd already run away, leaving a note to say that they'd gotten what they'd come for. Sawyer had promised the police that the League would track them down, so they didn't have to worry about any searches being declared.  
  
The League had remained in town for a couple more days to allow Tom's ribs time to heal; and spent it either catching up on some repairs in the ship, or, in Skinner's case, getting drunk. Skinner's time in the bar had been a bit awkward, but he generally just claimed that he was an albino to explain his grease paint, and people left him alone.  
  
Tom and Becky hadn't told anyone about their late-night talk; Becky found it too painful, and Tom just didn't see any point in mentioning it. They were acting just like a couple of old friends around each other, leaving the League none the wiser.  
  
Tom's ribs were still a little sore, but he was up and moving, sometimes joining Skinner down at the pub, and sometimes idly chatting with old friends, and sometimes just relaxing with the League...  
  
But, eventually, it was time for them all to go.

* * *

"You're sure you can't stay?" Aunt Polly asked Sawyer, as the League said their goodbyes in front of the Nautilus. They'd made a couple of friends in their time in town, but Becky and Aunt Polly were the only two they really knew well.  
  
"We're sure," Sawyer replied, smiling assuringly at his aunt. "Believe me, it's been good to see you all again, but I have to be going. The world awaits, and we still have a lot of it to see."  
  
"But it's been good to meet you," Mina put in, stepping forward to shake the hands of the two women. "It's been a while since we met such decent people in our new business, and got the chance to spend some time with them. I hope we'll see you again."

* * *

Becky smiled at that as she shook the older woman's hand. "I hope so too," she said, glancing over at Sawyer in slightly suggestive manner. Then she realised what she was doing and looked away, mentally berating herself for being so foolish. He wasn't interested; she couldn't keep on trying to flirt with him.  
  
After the rest of the League had shaken hands with the two women (Although Skinner gave them a quick hug for some reason), they went back up the ramp to the Nautilus, leaving only Tom to bid his final goodbyes.

* * *

"Look, just give everyone else my love, OK?" he asked Aunt Polly, looking over at her. "Tell them I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye myself, but business takes priority, OK?"  
  
"I will," his aunt smiled at him, looking at her nephew with a tenderness that he hadn't seen in his childhood. "Be assured of that."  
  
"Great," Tom said. He turned to face Becky, and sighed. He didn't really know what to say right now, but he had to say something.  
  
"Um... have a good life," he said simply.  
  
Then he gave her a quick hug and turned away up the ramp.

* * *

Becky watched as the Nautilus went down under the water, blinking back some tears from her eyes. It seemed to her that, even as the Nautilus dropped underwater, so did her hopes for any chance of a relationship with Tom Sawyer.  
  
Then, as the massive submarine vanished from view, Aunt Polly (Becky had always thought of her as an aunt, despite the lack of a connection between them) patted Becky on the arm.  
  
"Come on," she said, smiling at the younger woman. "We have to get on with our lives."  
  
Becky nodded and began to walk back into town. They had to get on with their lives now.  
  
Just as Tom had to get on with his.  
  
Looking back at the large sea, Becky found herself wondering where Huck had gone after he'd fled the cave. Had he drowned, or had he managed to swim to freedom, and begin his attempts to re-establish his power in the criminal underworld?  
  
In any case, if he and Tom ever met again...  
  
Becky wasn't sure she'd want to know how it ended up. One of those two friends may actually kill the other, one because he thought his friend had betrayed him, and the other because he had to do it or die himself.  
  
She couldn't bear to hear how it ended.

* * *

Far away from that town, on a large ferry bound for Europe, a lone figure sat on the deck of the large ship.  
  
It was a man, dressed in a black business suit. He was in his mid-twenties, and would have been regarded as handsome if it weren't for the long scar running down the left side of his face.  
  
Looking back at the town, the man once known only as Huckleberry Finn groaned in anger. He'd been so close to killing the man who had betrayed him, and his entire scheme had been thwarted by that little bitch and the evil that was trapped inside a stupid New York physics teachers. Where had he gone wrong?  
  
Then an idea occurred to him.  
  
He smiled a little as the thought flashed across his mind. It was perfect. There was no way the League could stop him then.  
  
Not with _those_ guys for allies... 


End file.
